


Beyond the War[Being REWRITTEN]

by Arai_Meadow (orphan_account)



Category: Hermitcraft, Minecraft - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grian is a scary boi, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Kinda, Multiple Perspectives, Swearing, another war fic kinda, because I felt like it, how to tag without spoilers, tw are in the beginning notes of each chapter, winged Grian au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2020-07-31 11:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 38,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20114182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Arai_Meadow
Summary: Grian's in trouble and no one can figure out what happened.This story is being rewritten! It will follow similar plot points, but with better pacing, writing, and a better idea of where I want the story to go. Thank you to everyone who supported me and I'm sorry for those who I vanished on.I don't know what will happen with this project, and I'm sorry. If you want something that's 100 percent going to be completed, this probably isn't it.I'm sorry. <3





	1. Fearful Flying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Slight description of injuries, they pop something back into place. Also swearing.  


The war had been gentle because all-in-all they were still friends. None of them truly knew how to react to one another once they stepped out of the hostile personas, wanting nothing more than to joke. Tensions seemed all sorts of high, waiting for one another to attack. Of course, outside the war, life continued, base building and projects full of redstone galore.

Mumbo was staring at his storage system, watching items slowly tick into the assigned chests. Mostly everyone was asleep, asides from the few who felt the need to work on projects all night. It had been a relatively quiet day, everyone involved in the war seemingly, all at once, decided to not show up in the war bases today, which Mumbo was okay with. The redstoner was glad not to do any of his 'Mole Duties' and instead enjoyed the time off. The war had been slow, with no end in sight, but that was alright for the time being. He was alright studying his own base, deciding which farms he wanted to build, redstone he wanted to tweak, it was a good day full of progress.

His train of content thoughts were thrown off by sporadic wing beats, obviously belonging to Grian. A crash against one of the pillars diverted Mumbo's questions from why Grian was here, causing him to instead investigate. He jogged over, wondering why Grian would've crashed, it was such a rare occurrence it caused Mumbo's stomach to jolt with uncertainty. Surely, he was just tired, or goofing around, nothing wrong. Nothing could be wrong, it was just Grian messing around, ready to bombard Mumbo with eggs, sure that was it.

* * *

Grian's mind was racing whilst his actions were so slow. He wasn't sure what had happened, but all he knew was something was wrong. His heart pounded against his chest, trying to decide what to do. Everything was hazy, a thick fog settling over his sight and mind. Spots invaded his vision, threatening to drown out his remaining conscious. After a couple of feeble attempts of taking off, he managed, and off towards Mumbo he flew, unsure of where else to go. He needed help. With every moment he flapped his wings, a searing pain shot through them.

He stared down at the ocean below him, trying to focus on the waves, on anything. He found himself dropping towards the water, his reflection almost clear to him, as clear as everything else at the moment. He tried to force himself upwards, tried to force his wings to go, and eventually decided just to fall into the water, hoping that if he drowned, someone might notice. He doubted it. His wings, as if delayed, forced him into the air, causing his stomach to jolt from the unexpected movement.

Nearly losing himself over the water, he struggled to keep the hope of making it towards his friend's base, considering stopping at his own. Everything ached so much, his wings fighting to stop, almost as much as he fought to stay awake. Though, he had already passed his base, just a couple more gentle flaps, right? He didn't dare stop, not even to look at what was dripping down his chin. His constant gasps came out in harsh wheezes, ready to pass out any moment. The sphere came into view, his wings ready to give out at any time. Everything was done with his silly games, his body needed to let go. His mind raced, begging for Mumbo to be nearby. Everything seemed to slow, realizing he was colliding into a pillar with nothing he could do to stop it.

Grian tried to call for Mumbo, but he couldn't make any noise. Everything was fighting him to give up, to let go, but he refused. Footsteps distracted him from the war in his body, sore, tired, overused muscles screaming in agony at him. He tried, tried calling to Mumbo, he wanted nothing more than to curl up and sob, everything so tired and angry with him. Against his will, he let go, his body relaxing.

* * *

"Grian?" Mumbo called, jogging over to the builder, gasping upon seeing the way Grian had sprawled against the pillar. Mumbo could've sworn he had heard a strained whine, but Grian, though against Mumbo's knowledge, looked like he had been out for hours. Mumbo gently dropped to his knees, staring in shock at the bruises upon his face, his left eye clouded with black, the blood barely dripping from his mouth. Grian let out a grunt of pain upon Mumbo gently nudging him.

Mumbo looked him over, unable to process any kind of thoughts. Fiddling in his own pockets, he looked for his communicator, quickly messaging a tired Iskall a worried help. Iskall, who had nearly just gone to the bed for the night, assured him he would hurry his way to Mumbo's base.

Mumbo shoved it into his pocket, trying to awaken the builder in front of him, without hurting him. To no avail, Mumbo propped Grian against the pillars. Mumbo lifted Grian's sweater, trying to inspect the damage. This couldn't have been from his rough landing, something was wrong. The red and purple patches covered Grian's body, along with some spots where blood spilled through his skin.

What could've happened to him? Where had he been? Mumbo's thoughts raced, sending Mumbo into a flurry of panic. Checking around him, he only saw the empty night. Looking down, he glanced at Grian's wings, the way they were ruffled, feathers sticking every which way. He looked like he had foughten something, but it could've just been the impact of the fall, who would've ever hurt Grian? Mumbo inspected his wings a little more, noticing the way his right wing was sitting. His wing, was it dislocated? Mumbo reached out to touch the wing, the minute his fingers brushed the feathers, Grian pulled away. Pain twisted its way into Grian's face, his eyes fluttering open, only to shut once more.

"Grian?" Mumbo cupped his face, shaking his head as he realized it was useless. Gently rubbing the blood away from the builder's chin, he pulled away, shaking his head gently. Grian's eyes seemed to have been clouded over with daze, but it could've just been the sleep. He checked some of the bruises, glancing up and down trying to decide what could've caused this. Dust seemed to be speckled in his hair, his sweater was torn in spots, he looked like a disaster.

A rocket signaled Iskall's arrival, Mumbo turning away from the small man that was out cold. Iskall peered around Mumbo's shoulder, registering what he was seeing, his stomach lurching.

* * *

Iskall sighed, wiping his brow of sweat, returning to the comfort of the lab. His communicator went off, sending a worry throughout his body, never once considering he wasn't the only one awake. Reading the private message, it was Mumbo-

Iskall immediately noticed the improper grammar, the strange lack of capitalization, something was wrong. Actually reading the message, a call for urgent help echoed into Iskall's head, causing him to sink with worry. A quick response and he was gone, rockets firing into the night sky. Confusion swept over Iskall's mind, wondering what Mumbo had been doing up. Probably working on a project, same as him. It only took him multiple stacks of constantly pulling the strings of rockets and fighting the worry that grasped at his senses.

Iskall was just trying to fly, ignoring the thoughts that were rushing through his mind. Soon the base came into view, more rockets being fired, quicker and quicker. He saw Mumbo, seeming to be frantically looking throughout the sky. Iskall swore he saw a red sweater, but was too busy focused on landing to process what that could've meant. Once he landed, Mumbo stood in front of him, almost looking relieved to see him. He opened his mouth to say something, but Iskall had already glanced behind him, the small figure propped up couldn't be good. Iskall pushed past his mustached-friend, crouching besides Grian.

"What happened? Did he say anything?" Iskall gestured wildly at Grian. 

"No, he just... I don't know, Iskall," Mumbo looked tired. He had dark circles around his eyes and was ready to pass out. He looked distraught, running his hand through his hair, only to bury his face in his palms. Worry filled Mumbo's mind, irrational thoughts brought on from deprivation of sleep screaming at him anything they could. What if Iskall blamed him? What if Grian blamed him? He should just flee, fleeing makes sense, _but those are your friends, you spoon._ He let go a sigh, pulling away from his own hands.

"How'd he get here?" Iskall asked, glancing back at Grian for a moment.

"He flew, I assume, I heard his wings," Mumbo was panicking, his voice caught in his throat, sentences lodging themselves into the dam of tears Mumbo was suddenly holding.

"Hey, it's okay, he'll be alright," Iskall whispered, nudging Mumbo.

"Yeah," Mumbo let go a harsh breath, tears threatening to fall. "He flew, but not normal Grian flying, it was panic-y, had no pattern, he-" Mumbo had to stop himself, rubbing the wet streaks that had formed down his cheeks away. "He was scared, Iskall."

Iskall nodded, patting Mumbo on the shoulder. "We should get him a little safer," A screeching hissed above them, Iskall shaking his head. The duo picked him up, Mumbo shifting and carrying him without Iskall's help. After struggling for a moment, Mumbo carried Grian bridal-style, the small Brit hugging closer into Mumbo, hissing in pain.

"Has he woke up at all?"

Mumbo shook his head, trying to decide how to get Grian into one of the buildings on the bottom of the island. Iskall drew his sword and swung at one of the creatures circling him in the sky, nodding at Mumbo.

Mumbo hadn't exactly figured out what to do, but he lept into the air, feeling himself plummet to the ground with Grian in his arms, fear grabbing at the wings he wore on his back. In a panic he glanced down, his eyes catching Grian's for just a moment, but that was all he needed. Confidence let his wings expand, the elytra finally opening allowing him to glide awkwardly into the ground. Another screech echoed from above and Iskall was on the ground.

"My room is over there," Mumbo exhaled, allowing Iskall to lead the way into his small garden with a bed. Mumbo looked down, Grian no longer staring back at him. Mumbo couldn't help but ponder if the gaze he had seen was a panic-induced hallucination brought on by survival instincts. Mumbo set Grian down, allowing him to fall into the bed. Iskall stared down at Grian, still observing every bruise and cut.

"We need to get some of those cleaned up, and we need to make sure there aren't any bad ones," Iskall mumbled, vanishing to go get something, assumably a piece of wool.

Mumbo picked Grian up once more, propping him against the headboard. Fear struck Mumbo, noticing the dark spot around Grian's lower leg. Mumbo rubbed his finger over the black jeans' damp spot, drawing his fingers away and freezing once he saw his fingers dancing with small tints of red. It had to be redstone from earlier, it couldn't be bl- It couldn't be. Grian was alright, he'd be alright, right? Mumbo's mind raced, his thoughts echoing to himself.

"Mumbo, what's wrong?" Iskall was beside him, shock still tingling the taller man's senses. Iskall, not waiting for Mumbo to snap back to reality, followed the gaze to his fingers, and inspected Grian once more. Clenching the wool in one hand, he drew a piece of flint from his pocket carefully, gingerly cutting the fabric away from Grian's wounded leg.

"Wha-" Mumbo looked up, Iskall immediately holding his hand up to wave him over. Mumbo was at his side, looking at the gash on their friend's leg. Iskall let go a sigh of relief, it wasn't all that bad. Manageable. Iskall dabbed at the wound with the wool in his hand, dying the wool a slight red.

"My med-kit is in the lab, do you have one here?" Iskall turned, putting his hand on Mumbo's shoulder.

"Of course! Give me-" He had started leaving before even answering, his voice drowned out by rockets. Iskall turned back to Grian, rubbing the blood away once more.

Iskall whispered an apology to Grian, pressing against the wound with the wool in his hand. Grian gritted his teeth, eyes opening to look at Iskall. He croaked out, attempting to say something, anything to Iskall, only to be silenced. 

"Shh, it's okay. How'd this happen?" Iskall ran his hand through his friend's hair, doing his best to apply any pressure to the wound without hurting Grian. Mumbo, almost silently, appeared at Iskall's side, staring down at Grian. The corners of Grian's mouth turned into a small bit of a smile, only for a moment.

"It's alright, Grian," Mumbo whispered, staring at the eyes that were slowly losing consciousness once more. He turned to Iskall, handing over the med-kit.

Iskall immediately started on cleaning the open wounds, then wrapping them in the bandages that were in the kit. Iskall glanced at Grian, who's eyes had shut once more. He looked back at Mumbo, finishing tying the bandage up. Mumbo looked lost, one of his hands on Grian's shoulder, gently fiddling his thumb up and down it. The other was dangling at his side, clenching into a fist and letting go every couple of seconds. Iskall looked back down, scanning for any cuts that needed to be taken care of.

"His wing, will you look at it? You seem to know what you're doing," The voice was quiet, Mumbo glancing at Iskall, then nodding towards the wing.

Iskall nodded, Grian's wings outstretched as if he was still flying. The feathers were ruffled, the wing itself lowered from its normal position. Iskall immediately noticed the way it was dislocated, praying that's all it was, as he glanced at Mumbo nervously. "You might wanna hold him down," He whispered.

He nodded, gently resting his hands on Grian's shoulders, closing his eyes. Mumbo heard the snap, the one that caused his stomach to rock back and forth, the one that caused Grian to almost sit up, if not for Mumbo holding him down now. Mumbo looked at Grian, terrified eyes staring back at him. Tears had started forming in his eyes, running down his cheeks from pain alone. Mumbo gently let go, rubbing away the tears. "It's okay."

"Go back to sleep, Grian, I won't touch your wing anymore, I promise," Iskall looked down at his own hands, then back at the wing that he had snapped back into place. Something was still wrong, but he stepped away from Grian, only to be pulled back by Mumbo, who seemed to be intently staring at Grian. Iskall's mind wandered, questioning what Mumbo was doing. Is Mumbo okay? Is Grian okay, did Iskall really really hurt him?_ You did snap his wing back into place, what do you think, Iskall?_ Mumbo's obviously was trying to get him to look at some- The thoughts registered all at once, Iskall looking at Mumbo, following his gaze to Grian.

Grian's eyes were still open, clouded over with something unrecognizable. The pain had escaped him, he couldn't feel the way his body was aching anymore. He was tired, confused, and everything was too bright. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open, sleep still fighting him tooth and nail.

"Do you see that?" Mumbo turned, the Swede next to him still investigating in his own head. "He looks so out of it, more than Grian 'out-of-it.' He looks dazed, Iskall."

Iskall glanced between the two, running his hand through his hair, "You don't think..."

"Well, Grian got his ass beat, and sure he's small, but he's spry, and amazing at flying, he should've just fled any battle."

"Unless he couldn't," Iskall's breath caught in his throat, both of them questioning the implication of the newest words lost to the minds.

"His wing was dislocated, possibly broken," Mumbo murmured, stepping away from Grian, who's eyes had since closed, "is it from the fall he had?"

Iskall followed Mumbo outside, just to speak at a normal voice, "We can't begin to know until he wakes up."

"Right, I'll watch him for an hour or so, get some shut-eye."

Iskall shook his head, pushing Mumbo back inside. "I'll be right back," and with that, he was off, flying through the sky to Grian's base. He gently de-constructed the bed, shaking his head miserably. This was going to be one heavy thing to fly. But, he flew the deconstructed bed back to Mumbo's, quickly resetting it up and forcing Mumbo to lay in it.

Mumbo fell asleep, not protesting. Iskall watched Grian for a couple of hours, the sun beginning to creep up once he asked Mumbo to switch. Mumbo readily agreed, allowing Iskall to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of my first fic! Sorta, kinda, semi-proud of it? Oh man.  
Words: 2.8k!


	2. Silenced By Sleep

"Has he woken yet?" Iskall sat up, rubbing his eye and stretching his arms into the air.

  
Mumbo had his chin in his hands, shaking his head just so slightly. "Did he wake up on your shift at all? I didn't get a chance to ask," Mumbo mumbled, still watching Grian as the sun dripped its way into the sky. He was scared, Grian had barely stirred the entire time he had been watching him.

  
"No, didn't wake up at all," Iskall started again upon glancing at Mumbo, "Once, he grabbed my arm though, I swear he bruised me!" Iskall laughed, nudging Mumbo who barely had the energy to bring a smile to his face. Grian did have one tight grip.

  
"It'll be okay, Mumbo," He said, bringing Mumbo out of his thoughts. Iskall rose from the bed, plopping on the floor next to Mumbo.

  
"I know."

  
"Would you like to sleep, Mumbo?" It was all Iskall could think to offer. He looked exhausted, and though the two barely got any sleep between themselves, though, neither of them wanted to sleep anymore.

  
Mumbo shook his head, shifting carefully in his spot. His body was cramping, stiff from intent watching. It was begging for him to move, to stand and give up on such a useless venture, but he wouldn't. He needed to assist his friend, he had too. He wanted to shake Grian awake, beg for answers, but he knew better.

  
"Mumbo, get up," Iskall extended his hand, mumbling something when Mumbo sat still. "You're really gonna make me do this, huh?" Iskall crouched down, wrapping his arms with Mumbo's, lifting him up, much against Mumbo's fights against it. The taller man winced in pain.

  
"You can't just sit here all day."

  
"I can and will," He huffed, gently pulling away from Iskall.

  
Iskall quietly pulled out his communicator, messaging the chat of hermits. In his eye he saw the message pop up, shoving his communicator away and waiting for a response. He attempted to watch Grian, but couldn't help glancing at Mumbo. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the tall man stretch, probably for the first time in a while. Once his communicator beeped he checked the messages, responding with the communicator.

* * *

_**Iskall85:** Hey, did anyone see Grian last night?_

_**XisumaVoid:** No, is he missing?_

_**Iskall85: **Not missing, just trying to figure out how late he was out!_

_**Docm77:** I saw him in the nether hub pretty late last night. He looked exhausted._

* * *

"What's that all about?" Mumbo barely croaked, exhausted.

  
"Doc saw Grian last night at the nether hub."

  
Mumbo adjusted, glancing at himself in the small glass reflection, almost shocked at how bad he looked. His hair was springing in every which direction, exhaustion had taken control of his eyes, his mustache not neatly combed down as he liked. A frown seeped onto his face, Grian would be disappointed with him.

  
"Are you okay to watch him for a moment? I have to..." He felt like he was going to cry, thinking about how upset Grian would be with him, how scolding he would be, how he'd pull Mumbo into a hug and tell him it was okay.

  
"Of course, go on ahead," Iskall whispered, Mumbo silently thanking his response and him. He was gone, disappearing into the sky.

  
Once Mumbo returned, he looked better, sure exhaustion still sunk its teeth into his mind, but it wasn't obvious unless you knew where to look. He had even changed clothes, no longer in a redstone stained suit. Iskall smiled upon seeing the man enter with a newfound sense of rationality.

  
"There you go! You look much more alive!" Iskall laughed gently, smiling up at Mumbo.

  
"Thanks, I suppose."

  
Iskall went to say something more, only to be cut off by a small grunt. The duo turned to the red-sweatered man who now was looking right back at them.

  
In the blink of an eye, all of Mumbo's calm was gone, and he's crouched besides Grian. Iskall, still unsure he hadn't just heard Mumbo, was still standing in the same spot, wide-eyed, thoughts rushing through his mind.

  
"Grian? Are you alright?" The words sputtered out of Mumbo's mouth, coming out slightly twisted and entwined with one another.

  
The response was a gentle cough, a confused, pain-stricken hiss, and a slight nod. His breath was getting caught in his throat, coming out in a harsh gasp. Grian adjusted, wincing and panicking as the memories seemed to flood his mind. He glanced between Mumbo and Iskall, finally turning to his wing.

  
"Grian?" Iskall whispered, finally finding his way over.

  
Grian sucked in with a rush of cold air, "it's okay, right? Nothing bad?" He winced upon hearing his own words, as if they weren't supposed to be real.

  
Mumbo and Iskall exchanged a worried look, Iskall glancing at the smaller man in front of them. "Your wing, it seems to be pretty badly injured. You have so many cuts and bruises, what happened?" He attempted, pretty pathetically, but still, to put his words as gently as possible. They came out merged with intense worry.

  
"My wing hurts," Grian's voice was so small it barely made it over the gentle waves outside. He seemed to be focusing intently on it, no longer looking at the other two. It twitched, causing him to almost immediately release a weak whimper. Pain drowned out any other thoughts he was having, threatening to force him back into unconsciousness. His body was still warring with him.

  
"Hey, it's okay, just relax," Mumbo's voice seemed to draw Grian's attention for a moment. That's all he needed, was a moment with focus.

  
"I'm sorry," Grian's voice had begun breaking, tears fluttering down his cheeks.

  
"Hey, it's-" Mumbo whispers, but stops upon noticing the way Grian's eyes seemed to be focused upon time and space itself.

  
And then, the trio was a duo once more, sleep taking hold of Grian's mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly 1k words! Sorry, this one is so much shorter, I really wanted to get it out at a decent time!  
Trust me, things will happen next chapter.


	3. Story Untold

_"Wake up."_

He wasn't sure who had said it, due to the way he felt so alone now. It was dark, and cold, and everything was screaming at him. It was loud, yet deafeningly silent, he was alone. Alone in such a world where loneliness was definitely punishable by death.

He had seen their faces, his friends, where did they go? Did they abandon him? His head was pounding, and he was thankful for the darkness. What happened last night?

Grian ran his hands through his hair, wincing at the pain. "I gotta get out of here," He whispered to himself and the darkness, leaping into the air, preparing to let the wind carry him. He flinched, stiffening before landing back on his feet, turning behind him to find that even though his wings were screaming at him in pain, there were no wings attached to his back.

Looking up, Grian felt watched. Panicking at the loss of his wings, he started finding his way forward, grimacing each step. He just wanted to be back in his base, warm and safe. Where was he? This couldn't be good. This- why was he in so much pain?

Rationality started biting at his fingertips, causing him to blink off the confusion he had been blinded by. Sitting gently, he found himself finding the pain unbearable, running fingers over each cut, trying to remember how they got there. All he seems to be able to remember is the color purple, the way it's plagued his mind.

A footstep. He wasn't sure it was real, but upon looking around he felt sick, nausea grasping at him. He forced himself onto his feet, glancing around wildly.

Another. This time, he was glaring in the direction of such an intrusive noise. He saw something move just beyond the dark, but couldn't bring himself forwards.

More. Quicker. His heart was pounding in his chest, his hands were shaking, his thoughts rapid but his body so slow. He barely was able to catch the bright blue eyes before being thrown backward, landing harshly against the ground. He let out a yelp, turning to leave with- wings. He was attempting to fly, but not even his legs were responding, much less his lost wings. He let himself curl tightly, his knees to his chests.

Then, the footsteps stopped.

_"Wake up!"_

Grian braced, noticing the figure standing in front of him.

An apology. He was sure he had heard one, but it was being drowned out by sudden ringing. Ringing in his ears, echoing across his brain, endlessly clawing itself into the vast room. Replaying the moments back, the foot in his face brought the ringing to a stop.

* * *

He was groaning, barely able to open his eyes against the bright sunlight. Soon, Mumbo stood in his vision, concern was pretty much all Grian could make out. After a moment of lingering stares, Iskall appeared.

"Grian?" His voice was soft, almost snapping Grian into reality.

Grian, trying to decipher what parts of his memory were rooted in reality, and which parts seemed to be nightmares, mind sputtering. "It's okay, right? Nothing bad?" His friends would tell him if the knife he felt in his chest in his hellscape was real. That surely would be bad.

"Your wing," Iskall said, though Grian swore he saw him mouthing more. 

Upon realizing the searing pain upon his wings, he stared, relief flooding over him that they were real. He could sense the worry that danced it's way around the room, even with how happy Grian felt in the comfort of his own wings once more. "My wing hurts," he squeaked. He did his best to flutter it, pain grasping at Grian.

All at once, he realized how much pain he was in, the wing knocking down dominoes of realization. It was drowning him, forcing him to struggle against his own body, which wanted him to give up. It wanted him to let go once again and fall back into his nightmares, but his body didn't care about the nightmares.

"Hey, it's okay, just relax."

Grian attempted an apology, Mumbo grabbing his attention away from the war, even if just for a moment. In an attempt to stay awake, he attempted to focus on the ocean waves outside, which ended up being the lullaby that nulled the pain for a moment.

* * *

Mumbo and Iskall seemed to share a collective sigh, but let him rest, glancing down at their communicators in unison as the group chat vibrated at them.

_**GoodTimeWithScar: **Grian? I saw him last night in the shopping district. He flew away from me, but man, something was wrong._

**_XisumaVoid:_ ** _He had been acting weird yesterday morning, is he okay?_

** _Iskall85:_ ** _ If _ _anyone's free, can they come over to Mumbo's? Especially if they have any medical experience?_

* * *

Xisuma felt his heart leap into his throat. He felt sick. He was already in the air, pulling the tabs of rockets quite swiftly. He knew something was wrong the way Grian had seemed so panicked but insisted it was just a bad dream that still was following him. Why didn't he stick around?

Xisuma was there in no time, coming from the shopping district after checking on some of the shops and buying a couple of things. He couldn't even remember what he was buying, his only focus on his flying and landing gently. He saw the duo in the small room, collecting himself before walking in.

Upon entering he saw the way Grian was sprawled against the bed, the black eye, the ruffled feathers. This couldn't have been good. Upon turning to Iskall and Mumbo, he felt his stomach do flips. Mumbo, though he looked like he had cleaned up, still had heavy bags under his eyes and looked constantly strained, probably from worry. Iskall, on the other hand, just looked exhausted. His hair was messy, he had dirt on his face, he looked exhausted as well, but still wore a smile, even if he was extremely nervous.

"What happened?"

Mumbo and Iskall shared a guilty look, Iskall rubbing his arm nervously.

"We don't know," Mumbo whispered, looking between X and Grian. "He, last night, like, late," Mumbo let go of a breath, exhaling harshly, "he was flying, but not Grian flying, like he was scared, and I heard a crash and found him passed out and beat up. I called Iskall over and we got him in here, and Iskall dressed some of his wounds and snapped his wing back into place. He's been up a couple of times, but I don't think he remembers what happened."

Iskall nodded, "We can't get him to hold a conversation or anything, half the time I don't think he hears us."

X nods, stepping past the two and gazing at Grian, feeling sick looking at the newest hermit. He quietly looked Grian up and down, eyes lingering at any bruise or bandage. "Any theories?" He asked, unable to think about what this meant. He wouldn't. The hermits all loved Grian, everyone loved Grian, this looked too serious to be just a friendly fight anymore.

"Some... of the injuries may be from his fall when he was flying," Mumbo whispered, the trio all blocking out the thoughts that were taking up most of their minds.

"Even if it was a fight," Iskall began, Mumbo and Xisuma flinching at the thought, "Grian's small and spry, he would've ran, flown away, something's wrong."

"He was acting incredibly strange, not to mention he's not very confrontational in the first place," X chuckled at the thought of G-Team's leader, non-confrontational. 

"How strange?" Mumbo raised an eyebrow at X, still trying to grasp the situation. 

"Well, in the shopping district, he was looking around, like, wildly. Like he was being followed," X sighed, sitting down, the other two following, "he just told me it was a bad dream, he was just a little shaken."

Iskall rested his hand on X's shoulder, patting it gently.

They all paused upon hearing rockets, Mumbo rising and stepping outside to wave whoever it was over. Doc stepped inside, staring at Grian. Doc slowly stepped towards Grian, all eyes trained on him.

"Oh goodness, I'm so sorry, Grian," His voice was shaky, looking down and folding his hands in front of his chest.

_"I'm so sorry."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Grian PoV because I felt it was needed to give a little more information!  
hehehe.  
Words: 1.3k? Something like that.
> 
> hehehehehehehe  
cliffhangers


	4. Done-in by Deception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, I suppose.

_ "I'm so sorry."_

* * *

"Sorry? What do you mean you're sorry?" Iskall whispered, breaking the tense silence that was suffocating each member of the room.

Doc looked up, shocked. He didn't seem to remember that he wasn't alone, confessing his sins to the air.

Iskall took a dangerous step towards Doc. The notion that Doc was behind the bruised man in front of them wasn't preposterous. The truest enemies, opposition to one another, the leader's of two sides-- That couldn't be right. They were all friends. They all would do anything for each other. This was all wrong.

X found himself staring at the two, only to break himself from the thoughts to see Iskall's fist. He stepped between them, taking a deep breath in, turning his back to Iskall. "Doc, what do you mean?"

Iskall raised a noise of objection, only to be silenced by Mumbo's hand on his shoulder. Mumbo nodded at Iskall, pulling away, seemingly confirming with one another that it was going to be okay.

Doc blinked away his confusion, stepping away from Grian and plopping himself on the floor. He didn't seem to realize why Iskall was so hostile, what it sounded like to everyone but himself. "I-I, okay," He inhaled, watching as everyone settled around him, X's hand now on Iskall's shoulder. "I saw him last night, in the nether hub, like I said. But, he wasn't just tired, he looked- he was running around wildly."

* * *

_ "Grian? Are you okay?" Doc asked, grabbing Grian by the shoulder. He snapped his neck towards Doc, Doc grabbing Grian's hand, stepping closer. "Grian?"_

_ Grian pulled away, flapping his wings harshly. He seemed to be standing, wobbling just slightly, but it clicked that he wasn't even standing on his own, his wings the only thing keeping him upright._

_ "Grian?" Doc was afraid to approach the builder, whose eyes seemed to be glistening with fear._

_ Grian adjusted himself on the ground, wings remaining outstretched in case they needed to catch him. He glared at Doc, balling his hands into fists. "Stay away from me."_

_ "Woah man, hey it's okay," Doc raised his hands in surrender, taking a small step towards Grian. "I'm here to help," He silently wondered if the stress of the war was getting to Grian, which caused a pang of guilt in his chest._

_ Grian tried to push Doc away, but stumbled, Doc catching him. Grian whimpered, pulling away from Doc and hiding his face. "I have to go."_

_ Doc grabbed Grian's wrist, turning him back around, "Grian? What's wrong? You can barely stand up straight!" Intense worry saturated his voice, his grip tightening as he saw Grian glance towards his wings. He shouldn't be flying on his own._

_ Grian did his best to pull away, causing Doc to pull him closer. "Let's get back to your base, Grian, you shouldn't be out here in the Nether alone."_

_ Grian kicked off the ground, wings forcing the air away and propelling him through the air. In a panic, Doc let go, watching the figure spiral through the air and into one of the never-ending tunnels that lead from project to project._

_ He'd never find Grian now, especially with how fast Grian had flown away, Grian being the most efficient out of anyone when it came to the skies. So, Doc stepped through the ITrade portal, returning back to work, attempting to forget about the winged builder._

* * *

  
"I shouldn't have left him," Doc swallowed, guilt plaguing his mind.

Iskall seemed to have calmed down, now looking at Doc, fiddling with his thumbs in his lap. X had drawn away from Iskall upon realizing Iskall didn't wanna throw something at Doc, trapped in his own thoughts.

Mumbo wasn't paying attention anymore, he was staring off into space, guilt grabbing at his pounding heart. If only he had been there for Grian, made sure he was alright, if only he had checked on him that morning instead of being caught up in his redstone. He had caused this, hadn't he? _Mumbo_, he should've been more considerate, _Mumbo._ Why was he so stupid? _Mumbo_, so stupid! _Mumbo!_

He blinked himself out of his thoughts, Iskall snapping in front of his face, "Mumbo!" Upon seeing Mumbo's eyes come back to focus on him, he whispered. "Are you alright?"

Mumbo wasn't sure what he meant, he was fine. He rubbed his eyes, realization clicking. He must've started crying, when was he crying? Why was he crying? He didn't really blame himself for this, right? That was silly, why would he blame himself? Sure, it made sense if you squinted at it, shooting it a glance out of the corner of your eyes, but otherwise, it was a ball of emotion that happened to blind Mumbo.

"It's not your fault, Mumbo," X mumbled, not wanting to scare the mustached man in case he was still stuck in his thoughts.

"I know," He whispered.

They all sat in silence, none of them knowing exactly what to do next. Something, if they were lucky, was behind this. Someone, if they were unlucky, was behind this. It was Grian, what could they do? He'd have a plan, Mumbo mused, sitting in the awkward silence. He almost felt the way he was holding his shaking breath, as to not disturb anything from its current spot of semi-rest.

Though, they all knew the implications of someone being beaten this badly, crashing waves against minds were drowning out rationality, not a single one knowing what to do. Not a single one knowing how to free themselves from the suffocation. Thoughts were constantly yelling at each of them.

* * *

He was all alone again. It was quiet, dark, and tensions were pretty high. But why? Grian couldn't figure out why the air felt like it would explode if he made a movement. He glanced around, letting go of a breath, standing up, against his better judgment.

He did his best to think, trying to remember what happened. He knew some of the story, interacting with X and Doc, flying to Mumbo's. What happened in between? What happened before that? Why was everything so spotty? Nightmare. He knew he told Xisuma it was a nightmare, and he wasn't lying, entirely. These dreams, wherever he woke up when unconsiousness grabbed him, but a lot more dissociated, he had been having them for weeks before this. But they weren't his body, he was watching it play out, where now he found himself actively in control.

"You're thinking awfully hard," He knew that voice. Why did he know that voice? It wasn't a hermit. It couldn't be a hermit.

_Fuck. That can't be right._

* * *

  
Mumbo stood up, stepping away from the group that was now eyeing him. No one had moved in the last couple of minutes, still struggling in their own wars. Mumbo grabbed Grian's shoulder, gently shaking him. "Hey, Grian?"

Grian winced away, opening his eyes. "Wha-Mumbo!" His voice was hoarse, but he was smiling. Pain was grasping at him, but he was ignoring it. Suddenly, now the group was around him, all staring down at him.

Iskall smiled, glancing between everyone, almost searching for guilt before reminding himself it was fine, it was going to be okay.

Grian sat up, hissing in pain as he adjusted. Mumbo helped adjust him, propping him against the headboard. He smiled, blinking off any remains of sleep he had, exchanging looks between everyone. He took a moment, nodding to himself, trying to decide how much pain he was in and where. After deciding it was lots, and basically everywhere, he let go of a breath, attempting to stretch.

"Ow!" He looked over at his wing, eyes widening. "I thought that was a dream, I didn't think..." His voice trailed, now attempting to calm himself. His friends, that was what he remembered, Iskall and Mumbo, and his wing. They wouldn't have hurt him, right? But then again, that made sense, they were there. They were- what was he thinking? They were, of course, helping him, not hurting him. He assured himself it, repeating it to himself.

"It was dislocated," Mumbo squeezed Grian's shoulder, watching the way Grian's chest was shakily rising and falling. "It's okay."

"Can you tell us anything that happened?" X was tapping his fingers across his arm, the concern heavily masked by his visor. It still slipped through his voice, as much as he was fighting against it, he couldn't help it. He was their admin, he knew something was wrong, he should've investigated more.

Grian thought for a moment, tearing through his mind. Everything was strange, distorted and twisted, he couldn't tell reality from the dreams.

X glanced at him, almost ready to assure him it was okay if he couldn't remember, but couldn't bring himself to say the words.

"So, I wanna say it was a week ago, I had dreams, nightmares, but it was always- I wasn't in control," He was trying to think his way through the dreams, even the content of them wasn't in his mind, "until the day before I saw you guys. I was in control and it felt like it lasted hours, and it felt so real," He was trying to get anything out that could help, seeing as his memory was in fragments. He furrowed his brow, something happened when he woke up, he was sure of it. Purple, it was loud, purple, but nothing came to fruition. "I don't know what happened, but then I ran into you," He nodded at X, rubbing his eyes. Something panged in his neck, a jabbing pain, unlike the aching that was yelling at him. He grasped at it instinctively, causing more pain to spike up and down his arm.

"You okay, Grian?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just, everything hurts," He chuckled, just slightly, trying to evaporate the worry they all had.

"You should relax, you can tell us more later," Mumbo smiled, causing everyone to stop shaking with anticipation and realize Mumbo was right. They needed to figure this out at a pace that worked for Grian's healing body.

Grian eagerly nodded, noticing the exhaustion that was creeping back over him. It didn't make much sense in his mind, how much sleep he had been doing, but he was still tired. He readjusted, this time, Iskall leaping to aid him, pulling him back down. Grian smiled, muttering a thank you, and nodding at each one of his friends.

He was snoring in almost no time.

Three communicators went off, causing Iskall to shift uncomfortably. Doc, X, and Mumbo all glanced down, Mumbo sighing and putting his away, turning to Doc and X. "I'd rather stay here with Grian-" He thought for a moment, chuckling. "That may be hard to explain."

X and Doc exchanged a nervous glance, their stomachs sinking upon thinking about Grian. The war, that was right.

"I think we need to explain something," X fiddled with his hands, glancing between Iskall and Grian.

Iskall nodded, understanding what he meant. Explain the pause on the war, of course. Iskall would have to go in place of Grian, for obvious reasons.

"We can't say too much, we don't want anyone to think we're accusing someone," Iskall whispered.

After a couple of moments full of debating, Doc pulled out his communicator, typed something up, and nodded. "They don't know you're coming yet, I don't wanna scare anyone off, stay behind with Xisuma until we're ready."

Slowly, everyone filed out of Mumbo's small room, except Mumbo and Grian. To the war-grounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: Nearly 2k!  
he he  
Time to do some explaining.


	5. Suspicious Sparkling Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's explaining time

Iskall twiddled his thumbs, standing with Xisuma, just outside the STAR base, waiting for Doc. He was thinking through every possible outcome, mind only half focusing on those while the other half was focused on Grian. Xisuma had been giving Iskall very noticeable glances for the past couple of minutes, but Iskall didn't seem to mind, if he even noticed them. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot, swaying side to side as if dancing in the wind.

"You don't have to be nervous, it's gonna be okay," X stopped glancing at Iskall, deciding to just face him. "These are all still your friends."

"The whole war makes me nervous to an extent."

Xisuma nodded, leaving Iskall to fidget with his hands. X felt his communicator buzz, nodding at Iskall, and whispering, "Don't be worried."

"Aha, welcome X!" Doc seemed nervous, almost obviously, but X was sure his voice was being assumed to be light-hearted. Iskall was clinging to Xisuma, obviously tensed at stepping into the STAR base. Everyone in the room immediately prepared to jump at Iskall, looking at Doc with wide eyes.

"We've got something to explain," Doc chuckled, trying to calm the team. Wels and False already had swords in their hands, standing cautiously, glaring Iskall down.

"We brought him here to explain something, it's okay, you can settle down," X spoke, much more level-toned than Doc.

"Grian too afraid to come here himself?" False chuckled, settling down a little bit, now examining her sword.

Iskall, Xisuma, and Doc nervously exchanged a look, causing False to look up. She noticed the way fear danced between each one of their gazes. Leaning forward, resting her elbow on the hilt of her sword, she raised an eyebrow, drawing their gazes by clearing her throat. "What is going on, you three?" The rest of Team STAR found themselves focused on her, only looking to the group for an explanation.

"Something- happened," Iskall was extremely nervous, and it was showing in his eye, but not his voice. Not even his fingers were tapping, simply because he was holding himself idle, thinking through his words. "Grian, he's found himself... caught in a sticky situation," Besides him, Doc was scanning his teammate's faces, and X was ready to calm anyone down if he needed. "He's gotten pretty hurt, and the G-Team doesn't know yet, but I think we've gotta pause the war, for now."

"Why didn't you tell G-Team first?" Accusation rang out, it was Impulse, who, although Iskall was a fellow hermit, a friend, this could've just been some wool-over-the-eyes trick.

"Yeah," Wels pondered for a moment, glancing between everyone, nodding. He opened his mouth to say more, narrowing his eyes at Iskall, only to be cut off by Xisuma.

"Hey, you guys called us over while we were investigating," Xisuma spoke, drawing the attention away from Iskall. "Figured if everyone was gonna be here, we were going to bring Iskall."

"No wonder Mumbo didn't respond," Ren mumbled, nodding, mostly to himself. He felt slightly bad for bashing the mustached man just a couple minutes earlier, saying the spoon was trapped up inside a farm again.

"Is Grian okay?" False spoke up again.

After a moment of silence, one that lingered for just a moment longer than should have, Iskall spoke up, "He'll be okay."

"So, what happened?" Impulse was leaning forward, head resting upon his hands.

"We haven't quite figured that out, yet."

Concern was dancing around most of the faces of Team STAR, all of their minds processing what they were just told. They all were some form of nervous, even if it was hiding in the back of their minds, plucking at their thoughts. No one was even trying to hide it, some fiddling with hems of sleeves, others staring so intently at the trio waiting for more, the focus blocking out their thoughts.

"How bad is it?" Ren was folding and unfolding his hands as a feeble attempt to keep his thoughts away. His mind was bouncing to the communicator message earlier, figuring it was just some silly tomfoolery, guilt tag-teaming his intense anxiety. He should've asked, if anything, but now he'd be trapped with his decision to ignore it.

"He's pretty bruised, and his wing was a little messed up, but as Iskall said, he'll be just fine in no time."

"If anyone saw Grian last night, even if just for a moment," Doc paused, trying to settle the intense worry in the room. He tried to wrap his mind around the words that had danced on the edge of his tongue, but he found himself just pondering what he was even doing here and not back with Grian.

"Yeah, shopping district last night," It was Wels, who was shifting uncomfortably upon the newfound eyes latching onto him.

"What time?" Doc was recalling his encounter with Grian, nodding quietly.

"Probably like 4:30, I was just doing one last patrol before going to bed," Wels was unusually monotone, especially considering the situation. Xisuma brushed it off as his way of shutting out thoughts.

"I saw him at like, 2, that's probably the latest it could've been," Doc commented, now maintaining eye contact with Wels.

Iskall, stepping back for a moment whilst Wels and Doc were talking, pulled out his communicator. He glanced at his DMs with Mumbo, only to find a couple of gazes focused on him when he returned his attention to the situation. "Mumbo messaged me about Grian at 4:55-ish," He hoped that was the answer they were expecting. It seemed to please the soul-stalking glares, that had been sending needles down his back.

Attention shifted back to Wels, now everyone expecting much more of a story from him. Though, a lone communicator ding caused observation to split. Some were looking at Iskall, who was rather embarrassed to have eyes on him once again, but a couple of them were still lingering with expectancy on Wels.

Doc smiled, nodding at Iskall. "X is in charge whilst I'm gone," Doc chuckled, leaving X to shoot a playful glare at Doc. As he slipped by he whispered something along the lines of advising him to keep him updated. Doc quietly followed Iskall, who made no attempts to subtly leave. Once out, he awkwardly jogged away from the STAR base, throwing an ender pearl over the lake, and shifting back into his hurrying position.

"No offense, but I didn't like that," Iskall mumbled, he slowed, once across the half-way point. He was glancing around, trying to gauge if any of the G-Team members had noticed them standing together.

"I don't blame you," He snickered, following Iskall over to the concrete water filter.

"Ah, don't use this against us-" He stiffened, remembering he now had Team STAR's leader next to him. Doc just smiled, understanding now, they had a secret entrance, of course, they did.

"Iskall! What's he doing here?" It was Stress, who had been humming gently before noticing the intruder. Her sword was in her hand, glinting just a small bit of purple, but she had no armor on, still just in the pink cardigan she always wore.

Iskall adjusted, pulling Doc out of the way of the piston door. "He's supposed to be here, we gotta talk," It was all Iskall really had to say, but he felt bad for not explaining more to Stress. She still stood behind them, gesturing for Iskall to lead the way. She held her sword up, still not entirely trusting the two.

She really didn't have to voice her thoughts to Iskall, because they were quite loudly bouncing off the walls. She wanted to know where Grian was, and why Doc was standing in their base now. Her thoughts almost dug into Iskall's heart, causing him to feel a pang of guilt. 

Carefully pulling Doc through the trapped base, they stepped into a water elevator with Stress keeping a close watch on the duo. They stepped out onto the meeting floor, multiple eyes now shifting on them. Stress nudged Doc forward with the edge of her sword, making sure not to hurt him. Everyone had been sitting except for the missing members, Iskall, Stress, and Grian. Now, Tango was standing, along with Joe and Cleo. Tango was pointing a sword, just as Stress had before, and Cleo was ready to go, if needed. Joe was just staring, head tilted just slightly.

As Tango prepared a lunge, Stress slipped around the side, nodding as a signal to calm down. She still was pointing her sword at Doc, smiling gently.

"What's wrong?" The air seemed to settle just slightly at Joe's voice. He wasn't tense like the others, pushing away from his chair and past his allies, up towards Iskall and Doc. "It's Grian, isn't it?" He seemed gentle, confusion and concern knitting itself into the brows of the others.

Doc and Iskall seemed to sputter, the two who had been able to keep it together so far, even if letting the nervousness barely slip, were both being entangled by Joe, their minds rushing around. His voice was extraordinarily gentle and calm, his gaze was trapping them and their thoughts, confining their breaths.

"How bad is it?"

"It's not-" Iskall was almost ready to fight Joe. How was he so calm? It was _almost_ irritating.

"He'll bounce back, just fine, it's Grian," Doc chuckled, relaxing at the dropping of swords. Once Joe had found his way over, everyone had slightly relaxed, except for Tango, who was still narrowing his eyes at Doc.

"What happened?" It was Jevin, who had been relaxing in his chair even since Doc came in.

“We’re still trying to figure that out, it’s why I brought Doc over here,” Though, Iskall would’ve liked to comment that Doc truly invited himself, he simply sighed. “All we know is he’s gonna be okay.”

“That’s why you asked for assistance earlier? Did anyone take a look at him?” It was Stress, who had shifted to standing besides them instead of behind them. Her sword was still drawn but no longer pointing, just slightly lingering beside her.

“Is he sick?” It was Cleo, who wanted to get her notion in before they spoke again.

“We think he got into a fight, or something,” Iskall quickly added on the last part, as to not cause any more tension between the two teams. “And yes, Doc and Xisuma assisted.”

Doc smiled, cheesily nodding at Iskall’s words, doing his best to ignore everyone’s awkward looks at him. He understood why Iskall had been so uncomfortable over at the STAR base.

“Did anyone see Grian last night?” Upon realizing Doc didn’t really have anything to add, Iskall spoke again. “Anything at all would be helpful,” His voice was calm, and since he was in front of his own team, he wasn’t even suppressing worry. Sure, if his mind drifted to Grian, he’d grab at his arms in an attempt to distract himself, but he found it quite easy to calmly discuss with the other members. Maybe it's because he didn't have any swords pointed at, well, him, specifically.

No one said anything, silence tapping against the windows, begging to be let out. It was heavy.

"Alrighty, well, with Grian recovering, we'd think it'd be best to pause the war," Doc started, popping the heavy air bubble. "We'd like him to participate in the event he caused," Doc joked.

"Makes sense," Jevin mused.

"Well, if no one has anything else to say, we should probably escort him out," Tango nodded at Doc.

"Come on, let's head back to Mumbo's."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh.  
im sorry  
Words:Nearly 2k!  
ahah i feel like this is bouncing around so much but i know it'll all make sense soon enough so i just hope y'all trust me with that.


	6. Puzzle Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Panic attacks?

"It's okay! Grian, hey, come back to me," Mumbo was gentle, running his hands through Grian's hair, trying to wake him up without hurting him. Grian's nails were digging into his arm, wings twitching quite intently. After a moment of nail-induced pain, his grip loosened, he relaxed slightly.

"Mumbo?" He pulled his arms away, eyes fluttering open. Mumbo simply smiled at him, albeit nervous, but still smiling. He gently pulled away from Grian, whose breaths were uneven and shallow.

"It's okay, I'm here," Mumbo glanced down to where Grian had held him tightly, smirking at the small indents. Mumbo was chuckling to himself, considering Grian's small size yet his tight grip.

Grian smiled, sitting up, only wincing slightly. He was doing his best to hide the pain from anyone around him, but his whole body was aching. Some parts felt like he was being stabbed, but most had dulled to just the awful, awful, ache. "Where'd everyone else go?" Damnit. His voice sounded broken, worry flooding through the cracks. He wasn't very good at containing himself.

"Well," Mumbo held up his communicator for a moment, "Team STAR asked for a meeting, Doc and Xisuma went, and took Iskall with them," Mumbo chuckled for a moment, checking the time, then continuing, "and they should be back any time now."

"Okay, good, good," Grian was feebly attempting to make himself sound normal, but his words came out shaken.

"How are you feeling?" Mumbo adjusted, stretching slightly.

Grian debated telling him. His thoughts were yelling at him to keep his secret, but his body was tensing at lying to Mumbo- and that hurt, along with any motions at the moment. "You have to keep it secret," Oh man, he sounded weak. "Everything hurts, a lot," He thought about chuckling, just to see if it would ease any of Mumbo's worry, but decided against it. "These dreams I keep having... they're so real, Mumbo. It's so scary, because it's the hermits," Was he crying? He felt the tears blur his vision, he just hoped Mumbo couldn't see them as well. His voice dropped, reliving nightmares in his head, "it's just been you, Iskall, Doc, and X, right?"

Mumbo was shocked. Sure, he figured it was still painful, but the nightmares? He did tell them he'd been having them, but he claimed he didn't remember them. His worry about his wing made sense now, he remembered Iskall and himself holding him down and hurting him, helping him. They were helping him, but he wasn't awake long enough to see that. "You don't- It's," Mumbo took a breath in, nodding to himself, "It's just been us, yes."

Grian nodded, eyes drifting off to space for a moment. "Wanna know what the worst part is?" He had settled, taking a couple deep breaths, the tears gently dripping away. "I can't even tell what's going on," In defense, as to not scare Mumbo, he went back to his default chuckling. "I know you guys wouldn't actually hurt me, but some part of me can't believe that when I'm asleep. I can't even remember what happened before I ran into Doc, before I ran into X, there's so much time missing, Mumbo."

Mumbo gently rubbed Grian's arm, nodding. "You must be stiff, would you like to stretch for a moment?" Mumbo stood, straightening his own back and extending his hand. Grian eagerly took it, stumbling from standing so quickly.

"Take it easy."

Fluttering his wings and immediately regretting it, he considered running. He forced that thought down, copying Mumbo as he slowly stretched his arm across his chest. They stood, stretching, Grian grimacing almost every other moment, but as much as it hurt, he was loving it. It felt good to move without assistance, without fear.

"How's that feel?" Mumbo paused, turning to Grian.

Grian shook off the pain to return an eager smile, nodding. "It feels great!" He contained his energy to his words, not wanting to injure himself anymore. He had settled his impulses for now.

"Goodness, you must be starving!" Mumbo gasped, hastily turning around and vanishing before Grian could get a word in.

Grian placed himself on the bed, bones aching. It really was too bright in this base, and he hadn't noticed it before now. From slipping into a void of darkness to bouncing into the light, it was giving Grian a headache. He buried his face in his hands, now alone with his thoughts for the first time in a while. He felt the way his breath was starting to get caught in his throat, the way tears were stinging his eyes. Why was he freaking out?

He let go of a tired sob, realizing how badly he was shaking. What was going on with him? His chest felt heavy, his entire body felt weak, like he had been struggling against weights pulling him to the bottom of an ocean. Everything was too loud, even the gentle waves and the small gasps, it was all too much. He grabbed at fistfuls of his hair, pulling his knees into his chest. He was tired, he couldn't breathe. His wings, much to his retaliation, had curled around his body, trying to dull everything.

He let go, doing his best to settle his breathing, fingers no longer entwined with his hair. It wasn't working, exactly, his breathing was all crooked and shaken, but the tears had stopped. He was alone, and everything was still too loud, too bright.

"Grian? Are you okay?" It was Iskall, who was hesitantly standing in front of him with Doc by his side. They were shocked to find Grian alone, but more importantly, Grian alone, curled into a ball, whimpering.

"I'm fine," He sounded pathetic. He definitely did not sound fine- He definitely was not fine. He gently folded his wings on his back, pulling his hands away from his face. He rubbed his eyes gently, smiling at his friends. His head was pounding, intruding on his vision just slightly.

"Where'd Mumbo go?" Doc asked.

"Get me some food," Grian did his best to form words. His breathing was still iffy, but it was getting better.

Mumbo stepped in, golden carrots in hand. "Welcome back guys!" Mumbo looked at Grian, stepping past the two in the doorway, and handing the smaller man some golden carrots. "Eat some of these, then lie down."

Grian anxiously munched on the carrot, adjusting from his curled position. Glancing up at the trio in front of him caused him to flinch, memories flooding him whilst he was nervous. One thing he noticed, the dreams he did remember, none of the hermits standing in front of him ever spoke. Certain hermits had, but not these three, nor X. None of them peeped in all of the nightmares.

"I'm exhausted," He whispered, not quite sure why the energy had left him. He nodded at Mumbo, slowly showing his appreciation for the food, and setting it down. He curled up in the bed, leaving a confused trio behind. He was snoring in almost no time.

"What happened?" Mumbo stepped outside, pulling Doc and Iskall with him.

"When we came in he was crying and hyperventilating," Doc started.

"He was having a panic attack, a minor one, but still," Iskall finished.

Mumbo glanced between the two, snorting to himself. "Man, I shouldn't have left him, I just thought he was starving," Mumbo began to rub the back of his neck. "Where'd X go?"

"He stuck around with STAR when we went to G," Doc mumbled.

"How'd both teams take it?" Mumbo shifted, glancing between the two.

"Good?" Iskall glanced at Doc, chuckling slightly. "Joe knew something was up right away, it was pretty scary."

"I don't like Stress pointing a sword at my back."

Mumbo laughed quietly, quickly shoving a golden carrot in his mouth. Yeah, that'd be pretty scary. He endured the glares from the other two, hiding his smile with the food. He turned away, bursting out with laughter, immediately receiving a punch against his shoulder.

After letting his fit dissolve, he looked up, beaming at the other two. "What now?"

"Well, I think we should investigate ConCorp," Iskall began, chuckling slightly, "and by investigate I mean let them know what's going on."

"Clearly," Doc chuckled.

Some rockets gave away they had a visitor, long blonde hair revealing False.

* * *

"I assure you; it's not a trick. I can take you to see Grian later if you'd like, but he's most likely sleeping," Xisuma gently spoke, standing across from Wels.

"You wouldn't be a traitor now, would you?" Wels hissed, crossing his arms.

"This whole war is for fun, you know that, right?"

"Of course I know that!"

"Look, I can take you to Grian, he's pretty messed up."

"I'd like to see him," False spoke up for the first time since Wels had very harshly claimed that he had just seen Grian flying. 

"He's at Mumbo's place," He nodded at False, watching her get up and go. She let the door swing behind her, already off.

Xisuma crossed his arms, turning back to Wels. "You guys can go home, meeting dismissed, I suppose," X chuckled.

Everyone filtered out, tension getting higher with each member that wasn't Wels that left. Soon, it was Xisuma and Wels, staring at one another in the empty room. "So, why do you not believe me?"

Wels simply smiled, spinning a sword in his hand. "You really, really, really are quite foolish sometimes, XisumaVoid," Wels winked, standing and exiting, leaving X alone with his thoughts.

He shuddered at Wels, who had called him his whole name. No one really did that, not unless they were truly upset with him. Xisuma turned on his heels, staring wide-eyed at the door. Something was wrong, causing his stomach to do intense flips.

Something was very wrong, and everyone could sense it this time, but what was it? X couldn't put his finger on it besides the hostility, but that could've just been anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> puzzle pieces puzzle pieces start with the edge pieces  
Words:1.6k
> 
> Puzzle pieces in small details-
> 
> also I'd like to say i'm sorry, it'll make sense soon.  
;)


	7. Letters of Loyalty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Graphic description of violence, Swearing. It's a stabbing and there's blood so-yeah  
stop reading around "He looked tense, shoulders back, hostility flaring in his eyes and dancing in his fingertips." You may resume reading about "He looked regretful, but vengeful, and overall pissed."

This nightmare, this one was Doc. Who, like most others, stood silently whilst glaring at Grian. Grian hadn’t tried to fight any of them back, internally, he knew they were just nightmares. It was just a nightmare, but it felt so real. Doc spun his trident in hand, looking down at Grian, almost smiling.

“I know this isn’t you, Doc,” He hissed, adjusting so he was standing upright. He folded his hands in front of him, wincing in pain.

Doc simply stepped forward, winding his arm back with trident in-hand. Grian stepped to the side, only for Doc to not throw his trident. Now, he was aiming it at Grian’s head. The smaller man held his breath, watching as the trident flew towards him, landing itself in his shoulder.

It took a moment for him to realize he was on the ground, everything spinning in front of him. He was holding his shoulder, watching the room as it seemed to vanish in front of him. He reappeared on his feet, the way respawn worked here-in his nightmares, _ what else would this place be- _ was cursed. 

“Doc,” He whispered, lunging towards his fellow hermit and grabbing his arm in an attempt to stop the trident from being somewhere else. His nails dug into Doc’s creeper arm, pushing him backward with all his might. He wanted to fly away, be free from here. Grian let go, shutting his eyes tight, guiltily, letting Doc fall from the sudden movement.

Grian opened his eyes to Mumbo, letting go of his friend’s arm. “Mumbo?”

* * *

Xisuma shuffled into the room, Mumbo sitting with Grian on the bed, False in front of them both. Doc and Iskall were sitting on the other bed, the one that technically belonged to Grian, watching quietly.

His mind had practically been stuck on Wels the whole time. There was something unusual about him, what had he even been doing up that late when he had seen Grian? Upon realizing the eyes on him, he waved, Mumbo leaving False and Grian to speak.

“Hey, what’d I miss?” Mumbo followed X outside, voices low.

“Wels was the last person to see Grian before you,” X muttered, unsure of what exactly to say.

Mumbo glanced at Doc and Iskall, raising an eyebrow at the two, “They wouldn’t really tell me much. Probably because Grian doesn’t technically know they talked to either team yet, he just knows they took Iskall to STAR with them- but still.”

“Wels called me a traitor after they left,” X continued, stepping farther away from the door. “I don’t think Wels has been getting enough sleep.”

Mumbo looked concerned, patting X’s shoulder gently. “It’s alright, I’m sure he knows the war is a big joke,” Mumbo pondered for a moment, “glad I didn’t go, I guess.”

X crossed his arms, sitting on the ground. “Anything new happen with Grian?”

“Just the nightmares.”

X nodded, he had heard about those. Apparently, they were almost every time he fell asleep now. Mumbo chuckled, breaking him from his thoughts.

“He’s got a strong grip.”

X looked over, the other man rubbing his arm. Xisuma connected the dots, Grian had a nightmare, must’ve grabbed Mumbo. Made sense. Xisuma and Mumbo exchanged a look, brought to both of their minds- the nightmares. 

"You know he remembers some of them, you can tell by the way he flinches around us," Xisuma whispered.

"But what happens in them?" Mumbo sighed, turning and staring at Grian who was clutching handfuls of his sweater. He was nodding at False, hugging his body. Sure, he looked eternally tired and exhausted, and the black eye was not helping, but he also looked intrigued in what False was saying. He looked content after a moment of her talking.

"Obviously, nothing good."

Mumbo stepped towards the door, sliding back into the small room, focusing on Grian. False and him seemed to be just sitting together, neither one saying a word. Upon closer inspection, False was humming, just slightly, only audible to Grian over Iskall and Doc's ever-growing chatter. Grian's eyes were closed, his head on her shoulder.

"Is he sleeping?" Mumbo whispered, upon stepping closer to False.

False simply nodded, pausing her humming to look at Mumbo. She looked sad, like the colorful world had suddenly shifted to simple grays that had been driving her up the wall. For a moment, she looked like she was going to say something before closing her eyes.

"Hey, would you like some help?" Mumbo guessed after a couple of moments of her leaning back on Grian. She nodded, opening her eyes to see Mumbo already to her left, working on grabbing a sleeping Grian.

"That's it!" Doc laughed, echoing across the small room, receiving a glare from Mumbo. The glare softened once Doc mouthed a sorry and turned back to Iskall.

Mumbo, wrapping his arms under Grian and pulling him away from False, was smiling. He was content with hoisting Grian up for a moment, so False could escape, and lying him back down. Grian didn’t make a peep of retaliation.

False had wandered over to Doc and Iskall, who seemed to be plotting something just below their breaths. They both quieted once False found her way over, pretending to be talking about how lovely the weather was now. False stared on, half-smiling and agreeing, but eyes still narrowed with suspicion.

Xisuma was leaning in the doorway, arms crossed against his chest. His mind had been stuck on Wels, even while he was communicating with Mumbo. There was something off about him, and it surely wasn’t just the lack-of-sleep hostility. He’d never been one to stay up late, especially not patrolling the shopping district.

Xisuma meandered over to Mumbo, glancing around the small base of operations Mumbo called his bedroom. It appeared False was now interrogating the two, but that didn’t matter to him at the moment. “Hey, Mumbo?”

His voice scared Mumbo, even if just slightly. He turned up with a smile, the expression of curiosity that he wore just a moment ago long forgotten by now. “What’s up?”

“You don’t think anyone’s actually behind this, right?” Ah, there it is. The words he couldn’t stop from pouring out of his mouth, the words that tensed Mumbo, the only listener. 

Mumbo, after taking a second to catch his thoughts before they left him, stepped aside, glancing at the trio. “Can I trust at least one of you to go find ConCorp?”

Xisuma was a little shocked at how quickly he was ignored, but mostly at Mumbo’s sudden desperation. It seemed like it was hiding in his voice, lingering in the shadow’s of an uncertain man.

“I’m going!” Iskall jumped up, only for Doc to follow him. False, who had already been standing, was pushed out of the way, just slightly, to let the duo wedge past.

“I’ll keep an eye on them for a little bit,” She was much calmer than Doc, who could be heard echoing after Iskall in the deep voice of his, and much calmer than the overly-excited Iskall.

With that, the room was heavily silenced with the tension caused by X’s words. Mumbo turned back towards X, his expression mostly unreadable, besides the concern that danced in his eyes.

“I don’t know, who _ would _ do this?”

“I-I don’t,” X sighed, realizing how awful those implications were.

“He doesn’t remember,” Mumbo’s voice was lowered, and it wasn’t just so Grian stayed sleeping. He was doing his best to hide the flood of emotions he was feeling, strictly providing information to Xisuma. It was alright, it’d be alright.

X realized Mumbo was right- why couldn’t Grian remember?

“He was scared,” Mumbo had gotten slightly louder, hands balled into fists before letting go, “it wasn’t any mob, X.”

X was sure, very much so, that it was definitely another hermit, that was the only thing that made sense. He didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want to find which hermit it was, it was a growing pit in his stomach that was devouring him from the inside out.

“Perhaps, there is a good reason?” Mumbo whispered, seemingly thinking almost exactly as X had. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to force a smile. Mumbo’s smile- if you could call it that- was interrupted by a yawn. He stretched, blinking off the sudden sleepiness that bit at him. X looked at him for a moment, chuckling.

“It’s time for you to nap, Mumbo.”

“I’m fine!” He laughed, crossing his arms in faux retaliation. “Besides, Iskall and I were up for the same amount of time.”

“I’ll make him sleep later, go back in there and lie down, I’ll keep watch, or whatever, in case Grian wakes up.”

With a huff, Mumbo stepped inside, knowing the sleepiness that had been tickling his eyelids ever since Iskall had awoken. It was three small steps towards Grian’s bed, two movements to lie down, and one closing of eyes, and he was asleep.

X watched Mumbo half-stumble towards the bed, laughing to himself. He had been tired this whole time and hadn’t slept. He was out pretty quickly, murmuring to himself something about Iskall.

* * *

He must've fallen asleep. His head was pounding, which often happened when he switched from the white of the room to the void. He was afraid to open his eyes, afraid of who might've been taunting him this time. Why'd he have to remember these, now?

"Not gonna face me?" Oh no. This was the one who stabbed him, not to mention, he spoke, which made it eternally worse. Soon enough, Grian was on his feet, forced there by his opponent.

"Fight me, coward."

Grian slowly opened his eyes, memories flooding back to him. Those eyes, that voice, he apologized once upon a time. He apologized before Grian could grasp what was going on in these dreams, before he drove the knife through his chest. Now, his voice was gruff, his eyes were icy. He was generally calm, but now was ready to swing at Grian, spinning a sword in hand.

He narrowed his eyes, stepping towards Grian. He looked regretful, just a little bit, but the rest of him looked angry. He looked tense, shoulders back, hostility flaring in his eyes and dancing in his fingertips. He adjusted the sword, straightening his back. He quickly lunged, Grian stumbling to the side. He turned around, in one swift step he swung his sword upwards, Grian gasping.

He let himself fall to the ground, clutching the gash across his chest. He felt the blood plume in between his fingers, air escaping his lips. The pain was almost numbing the surrounding skin, numbing his body as he was letting go of reality, letting it slip in between his fingertips, falling away from the world. He was still clinging onto the reality around him, unable to escape his fists. Until it was shattered by the sword through his shoulder, diverting his pain elsewhere.

It was enough to force a respawn. Grian was back on his feet, blood splattered across the other man's face. He looked regretful, but vengeful, and overall pissed.

"Wels, please," Grian's voice broke, though the pain hadn't left him, it was tolerable. His knees buckled under him, clutching his new wound. His whole body was yelling at him now, how stupid he was, he knew this wasn't Wels but still, deep down, believed the illusion.

"You're weak," Wels laughed, spinning the sword in his hand.

Grian let go, sleep, or consciousness, taking back over.

* * *

"Hey, Grian, it's okay."

He was sobbing, locked onto X's body, not opening his eyes. He was hugging X, words not even forming at either's lips. Just sobs, stirring a confused Mumbo.

"What happened?" Mumbo was standing, unsure of what to do.

"I don't know, he just started sobbing, Mumbo! Has he ever done this before?" Mumbo plopped down next to the duo, rubbing Grian's back. He was settling slightly.

"No, I've never had him do this- he just grabs at you sometimes!" Mumbo was whisper-yelling, afraid of what was going on.

Grian's sobbing had eased, now reduced to whimpers. He had let go of X, but was still leaning against the confused leader. Mumbo wrapped his arms under Grian, pulling him so he was lying on the bed.

"It's okay," X was whispering, running his hand through Grian's hair. "It's gonna be okay."

Mumbo sighed, looking at X, "You sure?"

"It's always okay. It'll always be okay," X was lying through his teeth, not even he believed it.

Grian smiled, eyes remaining closed. He hummed out some unintelligible nonsense, agreeing with X in his own sleep-induced way. He had settled down now, whatever nightmare he was having had been appeased for the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words:2.1k  
For those of you having a trial, *yes I'm watching*  
;)  
trust me- i have left you all the clues.  
i'm sorry ;)


	8. One;

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: swearing  
I had to post this on my phone because of my computer deciding to be an absolute bitch today, so yeah. If formatting is messed up I'm so sorry, and it should be fixed within hopefully like 48 hours. <3 (Also there is so much more I wanted to add but the whole computer thing-yeah.)

"Good reason or not, someone did this and no one is admitting to it," Mumbo whispered.

X hummed an agreement, trying to focus his thoughts away from emotions. His number one suspect at the moment didn't even try and hide it, which made it easy in the worst possible way.

"I think it's break time," Mumbo smiled, the worry that was seeping into his voice vanished. X looked up, puzzled at the now calm-almost happy, man. "We don't have to focus on who did this, not right now," He let his shoulders relax, rolling them in circles for a moment. Turning towards Grian, he nudged him, smiling. "Hey, Grian, wake up!"

Grian jumped, in one instant of fear that tainted his veins. He balled his fists. What was that for? His mind was screaming at him, begging for an explanation. Realization slipped into his vision as he realized Mumbo was holding his nose.

X stumbled for words, Grian now in the farthest corner of the bed, wings curled around himself. What just happened- it was so quick, X barely caught it. He looked at Mumbo, who was staring at Grian in shock. Tears had instinctively sprung into Mumbo's eyes, but he seemed fine other than that. In the couple of seconds it took X to process things, his mind caught up to a Grian who was shaking with apologies that were spewing out in such a rate he couldn't keep up with them.

"Hey," Mumbo's voice was so soft, one of his hands reaching for Grian, the other wiping his nose. Once he nudged Grian, he pulled his other hand away, praying Grian wouldn't see the pain that he caused. Soon enough, Grian's wings had folded away, causing him to whimper in pain. Mumbo's arms were around him now, hugging him gently. "I'm sorry I scared you, don't apologize, it didn't even hurt!"

X noticed Mumbo shift, awkwardly craning his neck towards one of his arms, wiping away the blood once more. He pulled away, looking at Grian who's arms still gently sat at his sides. Glancing at Grian's face, he looked like he was drowning. Drowning, in guilt, was that the emotion splattered across his face? What had even set him off? "Hey, it's okay, Grian," Xisuma nodded, letting his shoulders drop and his body relax. Some part of Xisuma wanted to believe his own words, and another part very heavily did believe them.

Grian whispered an apology, barely audible, looking up at Mumbo. He readjusted, forcing himself to sit mostly upright opposed to his normal slouched position. He looked at X for a moment, before settling on his own hands, "It was a nightmare," he sighed.

"What happened?" X blurted, almost shocked he had said something. He knew these were bad, seeing as he had just held a sobbing Grian for a good couple of minutes.

Grian didn't answer, catching his breath before realizing the blood dripping from Mumbo's nose. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," He writhed, allowing his breath to run wild once more.

Mumbo grabbed his arms, snapping Grian's attention towards his eyes, "It doesn't hurt, I told you that. It's okay, Grian."

Grian nodded, Mumbo letting go and wiping the blood on his suit sleeve. He gave Grian a reassuring smile, allowing Grian to turn to Xisuma. His stomach churned, he really didn't want to say. "The nightmares, they're so real, and it's," He stuttered for a moment, this was real, the white, the waves, it wasn't some attempt to get him to confess his fears. "It's you guys. Each time I fall asleep it's someone, one of the hermits," His voice was tired, flickering like a flame with very little fuel but still enough embers to keep it hot. "One of them fighting me, or _stabbing_ me," He hissed, bitterly. He had hints of phantom pain that prodded where the scar would've been. "And I know it's not real, but what if it is?" With that, his voice cracked.

"Hey, it's okay," Mumbo wanted to hug him, but with this information, reluctantly kept his hands to himself.

"Just know, we're your friends, we'd never hurt you," X almost felt like he was lying. Obviously, someone had hurt him, someone, he had considered a friend.

Two communicators dinged, causing Grian to look between them. Team STAR, of course. Didn't Doc and X already do something with STAR today?

Mumbo and X exchanged a nervous glance upon looking down at their communicators, Mumbo muting his and smiling at Grian.

* * *

**_Iskall85_ added _XisumaVoid_, _MumboJumbo_, _Docm77_, and _FalseSymmetry._**

_**Iskall85: **Should we add Grian or no?_

_**XisumaVoid:** No._

_**Docm77: **So basically we found out nothing, Cubfan said to let him know if we needed assistance, Scar was pretty out of it, looked like he had been working all night. _

_**FalseSymmetry:** Well, I'm off to work, let me know if we find anything._

_**XisumaVoid:** Okay, thanks, False!_

* * *

She didn't really like lying, but- it wasn't lying. She was off to work, just not exactly what they were thinking. She found herself outside of Wels' current base, feeling her heart leap into her chest. She wasn't wearing any armor, she didn't have any weaponry in hand, she looked peaceful.

He opened the door before she could knock, dawning his traditional armor. He jumped back, playfully putting a hand on his chest. "You've given me a heart attack, False!"

She almost felt bad, guilt stabbing at her. This was her friend. These were her friends. Everyone here was family. She simply smiled, pushing the thoughts away, "Sorry, Wels!" Paranoia was nipping at her senses.

"What brings you around here- specifically to my base?" He took off his helmet, readjusting it once he put it back on.

"We have to talk," She took a step towards him, lowering her voice.

He shook his head, simply apologizing and closing the door, she slid her foot in the way before he could. "Can't."

She crossed her arms, pushing the door open and standing inside. Now that she had moved away, and Wels had backed up, the door swung shut. "Wels, please?" She almost sounded threatening, her concern an oddity to Wels.

"What would you like to talk about?"

She smiled, gently placing her hands on her hips. "You said you saw Grian last night, right?" That was a mistake.

He shifted awkwardly, nodding at the question. "Yeah, he was flying over the ocean towards his base. I said that earlier, False."

"Was anyone else there? Did you hear anything?" She held her breath, her hope for answers washing over her senses.

He stepped towards her, shaking his head. He shifted. She registered the ender pearl in his hand a moment too late, lunging beside her, forcing himself out the door and disappearing with the throw of an ender pearl. She rushed outside, nearly tripping over her own feet, the wood, and a stray endermite now chasing her. Damnit, he was gone. She sighed, staring down at the small creature that was nipping her ankles. The endermite triggered something in her memory to replay the whole conversation with Wels, something was wrong. It no longer was just the anxiety, something was wrong about him.

He looked angry the whole conversation. Though, not even acknowledging that helped with False's sense of unease. She studied her own memories, the physical world around her not really affecting her. It wasn't his attitude, he was standing mostly straight, full armor, blue eyes-

Ow. She realized she had fallen to her knees, the endermite crawling on her back and sinking its teeth in. She stood, body locking up for a moment. The endermite slid off her body, locking onto her ankle again. She whipped out her sword and slammed it down in frustration. She sighed, plopping back down and sheathing her sword. Burying her face in her hands, she thought about Grian.

Poultry Man. Though, of course, that wasn't Grian, he showered everyone with chickens and was _one of Grian's best friends. _Chickens. Why was that lingering in her mind? What an odd thing to suddenly be sad about. Chickens. She felt her heart pound harder, chickens.

Didn't Wels always have a feather on top of his helmet? A red feather, his knight symbol. Her feelings got lost in a mix of confusion and ease. Was the feather the thing that had been off-setting her this whole time? She quietly pulled out her communicator, glancing down at the group chat and shaking her head. She quietly messaged Xisuma.

_**FalseSymmetry: **Hey, X, did you notice anything off about Wels? Besides the hostility?_

_**XisumaVoid: **I couldn't place it, but yes._

_**FalseSymmetry****:** His feather, did he have it at the base? Y'know the one that's generally on top of his head?_

_**XisumaVoid**: I don't think so._

_**XisumaVoid**: Why?_

_**FalseSymmetry**: I'll explain later._

She closed the communicator, ignoring its beeps. Undoubtedly, Xisuma, asking what the hell she was talking about. She didn't care. She shuffled back into Wels' base pushing her way to his room. It felt so empty now, so lonesome, so clean. Clean to the point it looked like no one had been here in a while. She found herself digging through his stuff, looking for a stupid feather. She even felt stupid doing it, but now she was digging and digging for a feather.

Stalling while she waited for Wels to return, right? This feather meant nothing. She chuckled, burying her face in her hands for a moment, letting the chest she had propped open close. She sat on his bed, grabbing the blanket. "Stupid."

The feather lingered in her mind for a moment, red feather, red feather. A thump, pain, searing pain driving itself through her skull, causing her vision to blotch out.

* * *

_**XisumaVoid**: False???_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words:1.6k  
one?  
clues are in place, can you find them all?   
maybe i'll even answer questions in the comments.


	9. Tired Time

Wels was sprawled on his bed, snoring gently. Entirely peaceful, the world was flowing freely with wind dancing outside. He had come home from abandoning False only to find his stuff slightly disheveled. He was tired, running away from one of the best fighters seemed like his only course of action. 

Though, his sleep was disrupted by a harsh knocking. He groaned, following the sound as it echoed through his house again. “I’m coming, give me a moment!”

The knocking ceased, the world ignoring the sudden tension that was now building. Wind was still playfully tickling tree branches outside. He stood before the door, readying himself, realizing that all the armor he was so used to wearing was nowhere to be found. He unclicked the lock, being met by two half-sets of eyes. Doc and Iskall stood, arms crossed, they looked quite upset.

“Where is False?” Doc was so extremely calm it was sending shivers down Wels’ spine. He wasn’t even using his faux-anger voice. He took a step forward, his red eye lighting up for a moment.

“I haven’t seen her.”

Iskall and Doc knew he was lying, Xisuma had told them she must’ve come here and stopped responding to messages.

“Possibly she dropped by while I was out? I did find some of my stuff sorted through.”

Doc and Iskall glanced at one another, both of their mechanical eyes flickering in synchronization. It was quite obvious by the way the duo stared at him they were not impressed. They didn’t believe a single ounce of the poison he cautiously let slip off his tongue.

They both looked him up and down, lingering on his helmet for a moment longer than everything else, before Iskall stepped back. “Sorry, please let us know if you see her.”

Once the door shut, Iskall had already started venturing off into the forest, leaving Doc stricken with shock. “You’re just going to let him go?”

“Doc, I don’t have a doubt that he’s got something to do with it all, but maybe False isn’t here. He told us much more than someone lying would’ve, he slipped in an awkwardly small detail. I don’t think he did this.”

“She was right about the feather, it is missing, and man, he looks strange without it.”

Iskall hummed a noise of agreement, guiding Doc out of the forest. Iskall’s stomach was churning, rocking back and forth. No one had seen False in a couple hours, and she wasn’t answering her communicator. It was highly unlike her. 

Both communicators hummed, causing them to stop. Their eyes flickered, chat being pulled up in each. The duo had grown pretty comfortable with one another, and felt that, although Iskall’s only mechanical part was his eye, they had bonded over it.

* * *

** _XisumaVoid_ ** _ : You guys find her? _

** _Docm77_ ** _ : No, Wels said he wasn’t home and that his stuff had been gone through.  _

** _XisumaVoid_ ** _ : No doubt she was there, though. _

** _Docm77_ ** _ : Iskall wants to know how Grian is. _

** _XisumaVoid_ ** _ : Sleeping at the moment, he doesn’t know False disappeared. _

** _Docm77_ ** _ : He’s been asleep the whole time? _

** _XisumaVoid_ ** _ : Yeah, but he seems to be getting better. _

* * *

Mumbo and Xisuma sat on the ground, Grian had fallen asleep after they had explained it was just a simple STAR message. He really fought hard at first, not wanting to fall back into the nightmares, but he seemed so exhausted. He eventually fell asleep, silently clinging to Mumbo’s blankets, seeing as no one had bothered explaining they had his own bed in the room. 

“Did they find False?” Mumbo didn’t let the hope shine in his voice.

Xisuma shook his head, folding his hands in front of him. “Wels said he was out and came back to his stuff being sorted through.”

Mumbo nodded, glancing at Grian for a moment, then back at Xisuma. “You don’t have to stay here, X, it’s okay.”

“I wanna check on his wounds, but I’d like to wait for him to wake up.”

“Do you really believe Wels had something to do with this?” Mumbo’s voice was dripping with sadness, with guilt. He didn’t want to find out. This was his family.

X sighed. “I don’t know, Mumbo. This whole thing is spiraling into madness.”

Mumbo stood, stretching for a moment. Without a word he walked away, launching himself into the air outside his base. It left Xisuma alone, confused, but only with Grian’s slight snores to distract from his thoughts. He shuffled his feet, the air turning stiff around him.

He couldn’t handle this. He stood as well, turning around and tapping Grian on the shoulder, gently. “Hey. Grian?”

Grian sat up, frantically checking who had woken him. After glancing around a moment, he smiled at Xisuma, rubbing his eyes from the sudden bright light. “What’s up, Xisuma?” He still was massaging his eyelids, and his voice was slightly shaken, but he seemed alright.

“How you feeling?” X plopped on the bed, looking Grian up and down before he pulled his hands away. Xisuma ruffled Grian’s hair, fluffing it out, in turn causing Grian to giggle.

Hesitating just enough to be noticeable, he was debating telling Xisuma the truth. The truth was not great, so much so, he didn’t really want to get out of bed. He wanted to roll back over and endure the nightmares, training himself to believe they weren’t real was much easier than fighting the wounds his body seemed to produce.

“Everything hurts,” He laughed, staring at Xisuma. It took him a moment to realize Mumbo wasn’t in the room, which was odd, Mumbo had always stuck around Grian in his bad state.

“Mind if I take a look?” Xisuma nodded at Grian, realizing how tough Grian was presenting himself. He had straightened up, which was odd for Grian, who generally was always slouching and, or bouncing. 

Grian awkwardly shifted, his thoughts screaming at him this was a trick. He considered asking to bury his head under the water to drown out these thoughts, but forced them down. He extended his wings, wincing when they hissed in retaliation. “The right one hurts- a lot.”

Though this wasn’t quite what Xisuma had been expecting, it was a start. He followed Grian’s gaze towards his right wing, inching just closer. A lot of the feathers were sticking out, disheveled still. “Can you fold them? I know it hurts, but I have to see something,” Xisuma noticed the way it was sitting, and sure, Mumbo had informed him that it was dislocated, but something was still off.

Xisuma extended his hand toward Grian, offering him something to squeeze. Grian, after a moment of debating, accepted, holding him in a vice as he folded his wings. He almost made an audible yelp, but choked it down as the pain dulled slightly.

“I was right, one last time, extend them please?” Xisuma felt bad, but upon seeing the way his right wing crookedly rested, he knew it was most likely sprained, possibly broken. Grian grasped at X’s glove, returning them to their extended state.

“Okay, thank you, you did great!” Xisuma smiled at Grian, though he knew he couldn’t see it because of his mask, he was sure Grian could tell by his eyes. “Now keep your wings like that, okay?”

Grian beamed, pride bubbling in his chest as he watched Xisuma type a message to Mumbo. He rose, putting his communicator away and smiled at Grian.

“You’ve been in Mumbo’s bed this whole time,” Xisuma laughed, pointing to the bed in the corner, “I believe Iskall flew that over when you first turned up in Mumbo’s base.”

Grian smiled, bouncing up, only to slightly topple over and land back in the mess of blankets on Mumbo’s bed. He blinked, looking up at Xisuma to try and gauge if he was worried. He quickly shook away the nervous thoughts of the world being an illusion, his dreams evolved, and stood, much slower this time.

“You okay?” Xisuma confirmed Grian’s suspicions of the worry that forced everyone around him to occasionally treat him like the glass standing between them and the storm. Though, upon turning to smile at Xisuma, he found that it wasn’t because of this mystery that was unravelling themselves in their hands, it was simply because he fell over.

“Yeah, just got dizzy!” Was all he laughed out, still worried about worrying Xisuma. Goodness, his anxiety was climbing up his arms, sending goosebumps throughout his skin, he was worried about worrying his friends. 

X stood, ready to help Grian if he needed, eyeing him walk over to the other bed. “Where’d Mumbo go, anyways?”

“He kinda-” X chuckled, “vanished on me. Said he had to grab something, said he’d be back in a moment.”

Grian nodded, sitting gently down on his own bed. “How is everyone doing?”

His words scared Xisuma, for no rational reason, aside from the fact that Grian had picked up on the fact everyone around him had grown increasingly worried. He felt like a parent who needed to obscure Grian from the tensions the adults were having, but Grian wasn’t really a child. “Iskall and Doc seem to be attached at the hip in this whole thing, who would’ve guessed?” He took a moment before continuing, trying to decide what to worry Grian with, without making Grian suspicious of the information he was being fed. “Mumbo took a nap earlier, which is good! Everyone around here needs sleep, though.”

Grian blinked, nodding at Xisuma, “That includes you, silly goose.”

Xisuma adjusted, letting out a confused hum. Grian probably would scold him for not sleeping if he spoke back, and he’d rather not deal with that. Why was everyone around here a hypocrite? “I know.”

Mumbo appeared in the doorway, clothes folded over his arm. They were Grian’s, a red sweater, white undershirt, gray jeans. In his hands he held a bag, smiling and nodding at Grian as he set everything down. “Figured you could use some fresh clothes!”

“Thanks, Mumbo!” His voice was gleeful, true excitement echoing out..

“And here’s that for ya, X,” Mumbo tossed some white cloth at X, nodding.

“Grian,” Xisuma turned, walking over to him. “This is gonna hurt, and I’m sorry, but I have to-”

“I know,” Grian’s voice had dulled so much it scared Xisuma, sending shivers up his spine. Grian turned up to Xisuma, eyes clouded with some sort of sadness, asking for help.

Mumbo gave a soft smile, nodding at Grian, mouthing an “It’s gonna be okay.”

Grian pulled at his sweater, awkwardly working on getting it off without actually getting it over his wings. Xisuma held the sleeves, letting him pull his arms through, working it off over his head and Xisuma slowly pulling it over his wings, leaving him in his undershirt. Xisuma handed him his jeans and another undershirt, turning around.

Grian got dressed, humming comfortably. Even changing his clothes made him feel slightly better, but he was braced for what Xisuma was about to do with his wing.

Mumbo took the dirty clothes from Grian and tossed them to the other bed, looking at Xisuma expectantly.

“Okay, I’m gonna be gentle,” Was all X said, clambering onto the bed next to Grian and wrapped some of the cloth around his arm. Slowly working on wrapping the cloth around Grian’s wing, a pang of remorse poked at him each time Grian winced. He was holding onto Mumbo’s hands, whispering something back and forth with him, but Xisuma had tuned it out.

After a couple of long and painful moments, Grian’s wing was in a sling, holding it in place.

“Now, Xisuma, it’s time for you to sleep.”

Grian scared Mumbo, relief causing him to laugh once he processed that Grian- the one who would burnout so easily, just from overworking, something he did constantly, was now telling Xisuma to break.

Xisuma raised a noise to protest, only for Grian to stand. “Bed.”

“You can sleep in mine if it’ll make you more comfortable to be here with Grian,” Mumbo added, which did make Xisuma feel better. He didn’t want something to happen whilst he was away. He almost felt- selfish? Selfish for sleeping?

“Now go to bed.”

And Xisuma was out like a light after a couple of moments of his mind flickering to Mumbo and Grian’s conversation. Though, he had convinced Grian to let him send a message to Iskall and Doc, first.

“Did you hear about False?” Mumbo whispered, digging some pins, paper, and pens, out of his bag.

“No, is she alright?”

“She’s probably just working on something but she’s stopped answering her communicator,” Mumbo bit his tongue, cursing himself for blabbering.

Grian nodded, “thanks, for telling me.”

Mumbo went back to scribbling out clues they had, conspiracy theorist style, pinning things to the wall with red string connecting them. Grian was sat on his own bed, fidgeting with hands. Mumbo felt relieved Grian didn’t seem panicked. He realized what the thanks was for, for not babying him.

“Of course.”

Doc and Iskall appeared, as Xisuma had said, attached at the hip. They both looked exhausted, but were laughing with one another, nonetheless. They both were holding blankets and pillows, grinning eagerly.

“X said we were having a sleepover!”

Mumbo and Grian burst into laughter, nodding. So, that’s what Xisuma had insisted on staying up for.

“Grian went into protection mode and made him sleep, pretty sure he’s gonna do it to us all next,” Mumbo whispered after his fit of laughter, carrying Grian’s dirty clothes. “I’m gonna be right back!”

As Mumbo shuffled out of the building, he found his way over to his laundry room, deciding to clean Grian’s clothes in the morning. He quietly shook them out and folded them, preparing to place them with the others he had yet to clean. In a moment of clairvoyance, he decided to check Grian’s pockets for anything he might’ve shoved in.

As he shook out the jeans his eyes were caught by a sudden red fluttering to the ground.

A red feather, from Grian’s jean pocket, was now nicely on Mumbo’s floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 2.3k


	10. Two;

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: implied drugging

Mumbo stood, alone. His heart was pounding, why would Wels’ feather be in Grian’s pocket? He silently wondered if Grian knew, but with Grian’s memories being as splotchy as they had been, probably not. He silently bent down and grabbed the feather, shoving it in his pocket. He’d have to talk with everyone about it later, but not now. If he was lucky, everyone would be sleeping when he returned.

He returned to Xisuma and Grian sitting on Grian’s bed, with Doc and Iskall snoring on the floor. Why Xisuma was back up so early, he had no clue. Fidgeting with the feather in his pocket, he raised an eyebrow at the two, standing in front of them.

“It’s your turn to go to bed, Mumbo!” Grian laughed, wagging his finger at him in a faux-scold.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, wrinkling his nose up in concern. These two could cause so much chaos together. He found his nose bothered with the action, retaliating by stinging him. “Grian, do you remember seeing Welsknight earlier?”

Xisuma tilted his head at Mumbo, inside his helmet he was biting his lip. Were they really doing this now? Why?

Grian thought for a moment, concern flashing in his face for a moment upon drawing a blank. “Am I supposed to?”

Mumbo wondered if this was a bad idea. It made his stomach churn, nervousness tickling the back of his neck. He looked to Xisuma for help, who stared back, blankly. He gently pulled the feather out of his pocket, gaze bouncing between the feather and his friends. “This was in Grian’s pocket- It just fell out, I’m sorry,” The words came out rather jumbled, clinging onto the tails of the words before.

Grian was too busy focused on the feather, his gaze unwavering. He felt sick looking at the feather, something that made his neck sting. It made him dizzy, the shopping district flooding into his mind. Something about ITrade, it was the most stable thing he could cling onto, the smallest hint of ITrade somewhere.

“Grian?” He snapped to Xisuma, the world still spinning in circles around his sight. It was settling as X grounded him, placing his hands on his shoulders, squeezing them once for reassurance. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” He blinked a couple times, his vision relaxing slightly. He couldn’t bare another moment of looking at the feather, silently thanking Xisuma for pulling him away. He grasped at his neck, as quickly as it stung, wincing.

“Would you like me to take a look at that?” Xisuma offered, loosening his grip just slightly. He could see how pale Grian had turned, even just from looking at the feather.

Grian simply nodded, letting his hand fall. He turned away from Xisuma, who inched closer, slowly and carefully. After a moment of him fidgeting around, debating back and forth with himself, he spoke.

“Mumbo, you should look at this.”

* * *

Impulse was sitting in the STAR base, spacing out. He had come here for a reason, one he couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the guilt that was tugging at his stomach. Something was forcing his stomach to twist into knots, over and over again with no signs of stopping.

Maybe it was the fear that was tapping at the surface of his skin. The fear that was nudging him awake.

Maybe it’s because he knew he’d be alone here, aside from the other STAR members, he wasn’t really worried about them, though. A simple thought prodded at him upon realizing his trust in his teammates was unjustified at this point. What if everyone had betrayed him? The thoughts started to tick into his mind, little by little, the paranoia that he had successfully kept at bay slowly made its way back in through every crack in his mind.

It’d make sense if  _ he _ wasn’t the only one, if the way Wels was acting had any weight to it. He felt bad for being so defensive, but he knew he couldn’t blame himself. His communicator dinged, scaring him, the small noise breaking the silence like a bullet shattering glass.

** _Tango:_ ** _ Anyone seen Impulse around? I haven’t been able to find him and he won’t respond to my messages. _

** _MumboJumbo: _ ** _ Wouldn’t be surprised if he fell asleep in the STAR base, would you like me to go check? _

** _Tango:_ ** _ That’d be wonderful. _

His stomach was climbing up his throat, but he forced himself to calm down. He’d simply pretend to be sleeping and wake up to Mumbo. He’d simply apologize, go back to his base, and ‘go to sleep.’ As if he had slept at all recently. But what if Mumbo-

It’ll be alright, it’ll be okay. He assured himself, nodding silently. He forced himself back into reality, away from his thoughts and feelings, and back into the cold room. It felt so lonely ever since the meeting, but he immediately returned. He wanted to hide here, forever. It was the one place he was safe.

* * *

Mumbo quietly nodded, the implications of what he was seeing, the sight digging it’s fangs into his throat and ripping out all words he had thought of forming.

“I think I know why he can’t remember.”

Xisuma sat back in shock, only being pulled out of his thoughts by three little dings. It caused everyone to jolt, pulling them both away from Grian and to their communicators. Mumbo gestured to it, receiving a half-conscious nod from X. Within a moment, he was gone, waving to the two and vanishing.

The dings stifled the snores from the sleeping duo, stirring them into a slight bout of consciousness. It quickly faded, returning the grumbles to the room.

“So, you guys just stared at me cryptically, what is it?” Grian almost sounded annoyed, much unlike himself. He turned to Xisuma, who was staring off into space. 

“If I’m right- which I seriously hope I’m not-” X sighed, taking a moment to breathe, what he was seeing wasn’t right. “You’ve got what appears to be a needle mark in your neck, Grian.”

Grian blinked for a moment, wincing as his neck stung. That made sense now. The memories, why some of them had been flickering in and out of reach within his head. Something had clicked in his mind, forcing bright flashes of frantic memories at him again.

It was dark, the stars bouncing in the sky above him, but they were fading. Light was peaking it’s way into the edges. He wasn’t sure what he was doing in front of the ITrade building, but his heart was pounding. Everything was extremely foggy, the air around him growing increasingly harder to breathe in. He flapped his wings anxiously, ready to launch himself into the air.

“Hey, it’s alright, take it easy, Grian,” X’s voice dragged him out of his memory.

Grian found himself clinging to X, arms wrapped around him. He was crying, tears gently rolling down his cheeks. Xisuma was patting his back with one hand, the other rubbing the back of his neck. He pulled away, rubbing his eyes. He found himself exhausted, but was determined not to fall back asleep.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” He shook his head, realizing it was now an instinctive lie he was telling. “I was remembering something. Nothing much, just the ITrade building, being outside it, and it was dawn, or something,” The words wouldn’t form in his mouth correctly, jumbling out in between awkward gasps.

“I think it’s time we both go back to bed,” As much as Grian hated it, he knew Xisuma was right, he really should go back to sleep, especially because he was sure that was the only way Xisuma would sleep.

“Okay.”

Xisuma looked shocked at the fact Grian had given up so willingly. “You’ve done fantastic, Grian,” Xisuma walked over to Mumbo’s bed, sure he’d wake him when he got back. He plopped down, watching Grian who had already rolled away from him. Eventually he fell asleep to the snores of Iskall and Doc.

* * *

“Hey, Impulse, you here, buddy?” Mumbo’s voice was gentle as he pushed open the door. He immediately found who he was looking for, propped up against the wall. He looked like he was sitting there, like he had been sitting there for a while. 

“Impulse?” Mumbo stalked over, shiverings running rampid up and down his spine. He crouched in front of him, nudging him.

He jumped up, silently applauding himself for appearing scared. He widened his eyes, giving a half-forced, half-genuine smile at Mumbo. “Hello!”

“You must’ve fallen asleep in the base again, Tango was looking for you.”

He knew. “Oh really? Goodness, I’ve just been so tired recently.”

“Getting enough sleep?” Mumbo stood, extending his hand to Impulse.

“I’ve been trying, but something’s keeping me up,” He took the other’s hand, bouncing up to Mumbo, eyes widening when he realized how sleep-deprived Mumbo looked. Upon closer inspection, he noticed how Mumbo looked liked he had frantically gotten ready in the morning. The bags under his eyes seemed to stretch past his skin, glazing over most of his expression with pure exhaustion. “What about you?”

Mumbo smiled, rubbing the sides of his face. “It’s been a moment, but I’m going to bed after this.”

“Is it about Grian? Is that why you weren’t at the meeting earlier?” Impulse’s voice was soft, which was an oddity to Mumbo. It was dulled, gentle.

“He’s okay, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m asking if you’re okay,” Mumbo had taken a couple of steps towards the doors, only to be stopped by Impulse’s words.

He turned, dawning that cheesy smile he was known for. “I’m okay, I promise,” His voice was so cheerful, it almost threw Impulse off. He looked so disheveled, exhaustion clinging to every his every feature, but his voice sounded honeyed.

“Well, we both should probably get to bed,” Impulse chuckled, following Mumbo out of the base. They turned to face one another, returning one another’s smiles.

“Are you okay?” Mumbo stopped Impulse from leaving, resting his hand on his shoulder. “Why were you back in the STAR base, anyways?”

“I just wanted to look around, see if I hid anything,” Impulse nervously laughed, tapping his fingers against one another. Mumbo raised an eyebrow, noticing how blatantly he avoided the first question.

“You can always drop by my base if you need anything, but, at the moment there’s a little bit of a party, so be wary of that.”

“So, Xisuma, Doc, Iskall, Grian, and yourself?” Impulse laughed, once more, this time genuine.

Mumbo nodded, giving a chuckle. “I said, it’s a party.”

“Goodnight, Mumbo, go to bed now.”

“Grian might kill me if I don’t, and Xisuma definitely will,” He waved.

They both vanished into the skies, after a couple of feeble rocket attempts from Mumbo, anyway.

He returned to his own base, the sun long since in bed. He looked around to Doc and Iskall, lying on the floor, sprawled as much as possible. Xisuma, was sleeping in Mumbo’s own bed, and Grian was sitting with his face buried in his hands.

“Grian, buddy?” Mumbo looked over to him, drowsiness slurring his words just a hint.

“Oh! Mumbo!” He jerked up, smiling, “It’s time for you to go to bed.”  Grian pointed to the pile of bedding on the floor, putting his other hand on his hip. “Don’t start arguing with me, either, I'm going to bed also-" He held his hand up, cutting off Mumbo again, "I was just waiting for you, go to bed, now."

Mumbo huffed, nodding at Grian. He didn't wanna say another word, didn't want Grian to scold him. He layed out the blankets, passing out nearly immediately.

Grian sat, watching Mumbo who half-covered himself, who didn't bother taking off his suit nor jacket nor tie. He was asleep rather quickly, lying on the floor in such a small ball it was almost impossible to believe this was the man who towered over him, especially compared to the duo who covered most of the floor.

He chuckled, and felt a little bad for lying to Xisuma and Mumbo, his promises of sleep vanishing as quickly as they had aired. He didn't want to let himself slip back into the nightmares, nor let himself sit idly while he waited for word of where False was. He glanced over at Mumbo's drawings that had half-hung on the wall.

He stepped outside, ignoring the rationality that was yelling at him not to leave, but he'd be damned if he would just sit and wait for news. Not while it was possibly his fault, she had gone investigating for Wels, of which he had something to do with. Everything became painful if he thought about it too much, as if he had spent hours squinting at words impossibly far away.

He couldn't go too far, but even just walking made him feel slightly better, so bobbing in between buildings under the giant sphere Mumbo's base held made his guilt lessen slightly. Glancing back at his wing, he kicked the ground, wanting nothing more than air to be running through his hair and feathers.

His communicator dinged. Upon opening it, it was a message from False. It made his heart lurch forward in his chest only to rock backward.

_**FalseSymmetry:**Grian??? Please tell me someone's awake._

_**Grian****: **I'm here, where are you?_

_**FalseSymmetry:** Scar's volcano? Where is everyone?_

_**Grian:** I'll be there in a moment, see if you can get out._

_**FalseSymmetry: **Grian? Wake Mumbo or Xisuma up! Do not come over here!_

_-_

_**FalseSymmetry: **Grian!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 2.2k  
two?  
-  
hey! any questions? I'll do my best to answer them, just shoot in the comments! <3


	11. Cold Waters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing

Grian glared up at Mumbo’s storage system, his communicator giving a buzz every couple of moments. He didn’t even bother to check who it was, because in his mind, it was False, and he didn’t care about her pleas for him to stop.

He glanced around, looking for any way he’d be able to find a boat, because even he knew flying was an awful- nearly impossible- idea. After a moment of trying to decide how to get up to Mumbo’s storage without having to go through the water elevator, he shook his head.

Regretfully stepping inside the bedroom, he glanced at everyone, who despite the multiple buzzes they were receiving, were all still asleep. He let go a sigh of relief, the room bustling with energy despite all of its inhabitants lying around, snoring.

He quickly darted away, checking the other side of Mumbo’s island to find a couple of chests and shulker boxes lying around, lazily. He checked them all, scanning the items like he did back with his criminal storage system. After a couple had been checked, he paused, glancing around wildly inside, losing his normal ability to find things at a glance. He quickly spotted a boat, though, his luck dancing around with him in glee.

He darted to the water, barely bothering to place down the boat as he lunged forward, grabbing the oars and he started desperately rowing towards Scar’s volcano.

After a moment he flipped open his communicator, the buzzes driving him up the wall now. His adrenaline had settled, leaving his heart pounding in his chest.

* * *

** _FalseSymmetry:_ ** _ Grian? Please respond. _

** _FalseSymmetry:_ ** _ Grian! _

** _Grian:_ ** _ I’m on my way, I’m fine, don’t worry. _

** _FalseSymmetry:_ ** _ Are you sure you’re okay? How are you even getting to me? _

** _Grian:_ ** _ Boat. _

** _FalseSymmetry: _ ** _ I’m outside, would you like me to start swimming?? How far are you? I could just go through the nether. _

** _Grian:_ ** _ No, no, I’m almost there. _

* * *

Sitting on the ground, she kicked at some of the rocks and dirt Scar had used to form the base of the volcano. Her mind jumped around, blaming herself for not looking for an enderchest, to even slightly blaming Scar for making the volcano. She had climbed her way out due to having none of her stuff, except a couple of golden carrots.

She settled her gaze on the water, finding Grian truly not that far away. She had given up on spamming everyone in the group chat to wake up and stop Grian a while ago. She inched towards the very edge and stepped in, the cold waters biting at her arms. She swam, only stopping when Grian extended his hand and hoisted her onto the boat.

He looked exhausted, his face was dulled, though most of it was being washed over by relief. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tight, much to no one’s complaint. “You shouldn’t of swam! You’re gonna get sick now!” His voice rumbled against her shoulder, where he had promptly buried his face. His voice was shaking slightly, his grip tightening.

“Grian, I’m gonna be okay,” She was doing quite good at hiding the chattering her body was doing it’s best to produce. Grian was providing her with warmth, though she knew she was dripping with water, and that water was now clinging to Grian as much as it was to her.

He pulled away, looking up at her, beaming now. The exhaustion had melted away from his gaze, warmed up by his infectious smile. She was smiling back, laughing at Grian. “I’m gonna take you back to Mumbo’s okay? It’s a little crowded, but I’ll find you some of Mumbo’s clothes-”

“Grian you don’t have to do that.”

“Well, you’re coming back to Mumbo’s base with me, like it or not.”

She sighed, nodding at him. Grian flipped out his communicator, typing something out and gently setting it down. Her communicator pinged, Grian shaking his head when she reached for it. She simply huffed, crossing her arms and watched him turn to row. She was impossibly cold, but dared not say a word. Her communicator beeped again, along with Grian’s, causing her to eye him.

“Don’t touch it, it’s fine, you should try and sleep for a moment, we’ll be back at Mumbo’s here soon.”

She simply shook her head, watching the way he struggled to even row the boat consistently. “Would you like help, Grian?” She rubbed her arms, quietly attempting to deplete the cold numbness that tingled her body.

“No.”

She was a little taken aback by how blunt he denied her. She shifted, glancing at his wings, the one restrained. She felt bad, guilt tickling the back of her neck. 

He rowed for a couple minutes, silence comforting both passengers of the boat. Though, the silence broke every couple of minutes, a couple of dings along with Grian eyeing his communicator. Once he had returned his focus to rowing, he began gently humming, sleep taunting False. She rejected the thought of leaving Grian on his own, regretting messaging him in the first place.

“I could’ve just gone through the nether, Grian, you didn’t have to come get me.”

“It feels good to be out of the cramped room. Currently, Mumbo, Doc, and Iskall are sleeping on the floor, while Xisuma is in Mumbo’s bed-”

“They left you awake alone?” The panic in her voice shown too clearly for her taste, getting ready to scold the boys.

“They didn’t believe I was awake, not to mention, Iskall and Mumbo have been up like the past day with no sleep, or at least very little, and Xisuma and Doc both were up late and were exhausted.”

Her thoughts jumped rails, rocking around in her mind violently, her scolds of leaving Grian alone swapping to not taking better care of themselves. She sighed, letting Grian know she had let go of the breath she had been holding in her sudden worry.

She went to say something, only to be cut off by Grian. “How’d you get stuck in Scar’s volcano?” He was quiet, his voice blending in with the waves that splashed against the rocking boat.

Oh yeah, that. She nervously nodded, as if vocalizing her thoughts, until she realized Grian, hopefully, was not a mind reader. “I went over to Wels, I just wanted to investigate something, seeing as he said he was the last one to see you, and I noticed the feather from his helmet was missing, but he ran away from me.”

He nodded at her, listening whilst putting all of his effort into keeping the boat steadily drifting across the waves.

“Well, in a moment of pure genius,” She chuckled, “I decided to go see if there was a reason it wasn’t on his head, like it was in his chests, and-” She paused, dwelling on the memories for a moment. Her voice shifted, no longer telling a story, concern overflowing onto her face, “Grian.”

He paused, turning up to her. Their eyes locked, bringing an overwhelming amount of emotions to both members. Worry and concern, mostly, but sadness drifting between both of their views.

She went to say something else, but the words caught in her throat, in her mind, anywhere but escaping her lips. He seemed to notice, breaking their continuous eye contact to wrap his arms around her. The sudden jolt shifted the boat, the waves rioting to the disturbance.

“I keep trying not to think about it,” His voice was soft, her arms slowly wrapping around him again, “but what else can we think? Someone out here- one of our friends,” He let go of a strangled cry into her, stopping False’s heart for a moment. In the moment, the whole world was growing bigger around them, swallowing them in the endless ocean, leaving their two souls lost and alone with one another.

“Hey, it’s okay,” She rubbed the back of his neck, whispering into his hair. She felt tears well up in her eyes, not even requesting permission to roll down her cheeks. She held him closer, as if that would protect him from the world that was dangerously drifting them further away. She let go of a harsh breath, reminding her not to hold it. “It’ll be okay,” She corrected herself, gently rubbing her thumb up and down. “We’re gonna figure this out, Grian.”

He nodded, forcing himself to hum an agreement. He pulled away, rubbing his eyes before glancing at the water around them. He noticed how much farther they appeared to be from before, silently cursing himself for stopping.

“Oh woah, that’s Mumbo’s island,” She sat up, recognizing the buildings littered around the edge of the grass, the sphere barely registering in her view.

“Yeah, we were almost there!” He playfully crossed his arms, only for a moment before forcing himself back to focusing his energy on rowing. His question had been answered, she didn’t know how she got into the volcano.

False’s communicator dinged, Grian suspiciously turning to eye her before continuing. It dinged a couple more times, she simply brushed it off as something with STAR. That was- until Grian’s dinged a couple times as well.

Without a word, he handed his over, it dinging once in her hand, hers following suit. Upon flipping them both open, she gasped, letting her anxiety slip out in short giggles upon realizing their stupidity.

* * *

** _XisumaVoid:_ ** _ Please tell me he’s with you. _

** _XisumaVoid:_ ** _ False? _

** _XisumaVoid: _ ** _ I swear, this is not the time to just vanish on me. _

** _FalseSymmetry: _ ** _ I’m so sorry, yes, we’re together, we’re almost back! _

** _XisumaVoid: _ ** _ You both have a whole bunch of explaining to do, I was about to wake the whole server to go looking. _

** _XisumaVoid:_ ** _ I can’t believe I didn’t wake up to any of your messages. _

* * *

“You didn’t write a note or anything?”

“I was more worried about finding a boat to come get you in! Plus, I could hear all of their communicators, figured it was implied you were warning them- which would leave us together!”

He rowed quicker, the island growing faster and faster.

After a couple of moments that felt like eternities, they arrived, Xisuma standing with his hands on his hips.

Grian toppled out of the boat, wobbling on his feet for a moment before assisting False, who, much to her retaliation, was forcefully helped out of the boat. They both looked up to Xisuma, who narrowed his eyes.

“You guys had me worried sick!” His scolding started, causing Grian and False to look to their feet, guiltily. “I thought you had gotten hurt! You should’ve woken one of us up, you’re in no condition to be adventuring off on your own! Especially not in the middle of the night!”

Grian turned up to Xisuma, preparing to stop him from the relentless anger-powered words. “I-”

Xisuma stepped down to Grian, wrapping his arms around him. “I was so worried, I was gonna start waking everyone up, and if anything happened on my watch-”

“Hey, it’s alright, I’m alright!” He hugged Xisuma back, guilt tugging on every bone in his body. “It wouldn’t be your fault if anything happened, I decided not to wake you guys, and I’m sorry, but I wanted to get to False as quick as possible and I was fine on my own for a moment!”

Xisuma let go, in one moment realizing both Grian and False had gotten wet, stepping back and staring at them. “You both need to dry up!”

“I’m fine, I’m only wet from hugging her, she swam.”

“You swam?” Xisuma’s firework-brain got ignited again, sending him spiraling down. “False! You could get sick from that!” Grian nodded at False, smiling just slightly. “You had us so worried, are you alright? How’d you even get to Scar’s volcano? Doc and Iskall were gonna fight Wels-”

Grian rested his hand on Xisuma’s shoulder, drawing Xisuma back to the world. His words sputtered to a stop, Grian gently pulling away.

“She doesn’t know, and I said she’d get sick as well, by the way.”

Xisuma settled, grabbing False and Grian’s wrists and dragging them together, pulling them tightly closer to him. The world felt heavy on his shoulders, especially with the thoughts of what could’ve happened piling up in his mind.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Grian pulled away for a moment checking his communicator. “Stress is coming over with some of False’s clothes for her to change into, so she won’t be in the wet ones for too much longer.”

“That’s what you did?” Grian leaned back into Xisuma, chuckling slightly. “You didn’t want me to check my communicator for that?”

Xisuma sighed, the world easing up on him while his shoulders were occupied with his friends’ arms. They slowly let go of one another, Grian smiling gently. A couple of dings drew Grian’s eyes to his communicator, looking around after reading the supposed messages from Stress.

The pink cardigan revealed her, quietly landing on the ground a couple steps away from the group. In her arms she was holding False’s clothes, smiling at them.

“What are you doing up?” Xisuma took them from her, turning and pushing them into False’s arms.

“I was checking on the chickens before I went to bed,” She laughed, turning her warm gaze onto Xisuma, igniting the fire underneath him almost instantly, “So, what were you doing up?”

“Checking on these two troublemakers,” The words came out rapidly, fear twisting in his stomach. He did not want to get scolded by Stress.

“Alright!” Her gaze shifted to gentle, light once more. She turned to False and Grian, who had been snickering to one another after Xisuma was about to get reprimanded. “And you two? What were you doing up?”

“We were just uh-”

“Grian was helping,”

“I was assisting False and she,”

Their words came out overlapping in jumbles, eventually leading to the story False swimming and Grian being bored. Stress eyed Grian cautiously, though, content with their story, she looked at him with worry.

“Stay out of trouble you two, and False, no more nose dives into cold water tonight, please.”

She was gone almost as instantly as she had appeared, leaving three stunned hermits, standing alone. False uttered an apology, only to dissolve to the air upon the shock disappearing from her nerves.

The three exchanged looks, bursting into laughter with one another. Xisuma’s laughter faded rather quickly, waiting for Grian and False to settle. It took them a couple moments, composing themselves.

“Okay, False, go get changed, I think it’s best if you also stay here tonight.”

“But there really isn’t much room,” She began to protest, only to silence herself. Would it really be the end of the world having a sleepover with a bunch of goofballs? Though, she knew it was for her protection more so than her enjoyment.

“Sleepover!” Grian punched her shoulder lightly, wincing himself from his aching bones.

“Xisuma, do you have a spare elytra? I’m gonna go get my stuff, but I suppose I will stay here, tonight.”

Xisuma bounced to the room that housed even more hermits for the time being, digging around in a chest he had placed down earlier. He reappeared, his own elytra in hand, passing it over. “Now you have to come back,” He added, handing over some rockets.

She took off, rather quickly, turning to stare back down at them, calling “Do I?” before vanishing.

Grian laughed, turning to Xisuma who seemed to be debating if she would actually come back. “Hey, what even woke you up?”

Xisuma flashed a smile for a moment, his mind taking too long to come up with a substitute for the truth, not wanting to spark any worry. In a haste, which he hoped Grian didn’t notice, he spit out the first words that came to mind. “All the communicators ringing from messages from the group chat.”

Grian looked at him, the doubt dancing in his gaze quite obviously. “Don’t lie to me for my sake. I promise I won’t be,” He hesitated, trying to decide why Xisuma felt the need to lie. He quickly decided worried over angry or disappointed, and spat it out, “worried.”

Xisuma sighed, laughing quickly to hide his utter disappointment in himself for catching Grian’s attention. “It was just a nightmare, then I realized I had twenty-six messages from False and you were nowhere to be found.”

Grian promised not to be worried, so he fought the feelings down. “Ah, alright!” He chirped, bouncing slightly in place.

“Come on, it’s time for you to go to bed. I’ll wait for False to get back and I’ll make sure she goes to bed as well, then I promise I will sleep.”

Grian followed Xisuma inside, Xisuma standing to the side and allowing him to lay down on his own bed. He desperately did his best to feign sleeping, at least until False and Xisuma had gone to bed, but exhaustion won.

* * *

False found herself flying back to Mumbo’s much to her own surprise. Sure, she intended on coming back, but not with a blanket tied around her neck, much like a child pretending to be a superhero. She had a pillow in her one arm, rockets in her other hand.

She landed gently, stepping into the bedroom that was covered in hermits. She found Grian, snoring, again sending a shock through her body. Xisuma was standing, hands behind his back, examining some drawings hung on the wall, crudely attached with red string.

“So this is where the party is, huh?” She forced Xisuma out of his trance, causing him to jump. “Sorry.”

“Yup, and it’s alright, I was just thinking,” He laughed. “This would be where our sleepover is, and now that you’re here, we can actually _ sleep.”_

“I assume you will not be asleep until I am?”

He nodded, pointing to an open spot on the floor, away from the two who had become one overlapping entity, and away from Mumbo who was curled up, still. “Unless you’d like the bed, I don’t mind.”

“I’d prefer the floor,” She threw the pillow down, untying the blanket and settling on the ground. She hadn’t thought about dawning pajamas, instead in her clean change of clothes.

“Nice cape.”

“Can it, Xisuma, I can still whoop your ass anyday.”

He laughed, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Goodnight, False.”

“Goodnight, Xisuma.”

The two were both out in no time, Xisuma failing to stay awake to keep his eye on False, even though it didn’t matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 3k!
> 
> :) what a nice calm moment.


	12. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: violence, slight panic attacks

Grian quietly sighed, this had become routine, and he quite frankly had accepted it. He occasionally fought back, but every time he did guilt rang out in his mind quite clearly. It made his entire tough-guy badass persona in these nightmares fade into someone who was cracked, shallow, and terrified. It became worse when they spoke, their hate for him echoing out with proof, proven the hate was true by their voices constantly taunting him.

“That was pathetic.”

He buried his face in his hands, fighting back tears now. Part of him wanted to fight, to succumb to every natural urge to swing he was having, but another part was much louder, screaming that he deserved everything for considering swinging at his friends, especially since he had woken up and punched Mumbo.

“Get up, unless you’re really that cowardice,” The voice brought a foot to his side, causing him to gasp for air, now struggling to get back to his knees. Fire burned deep inside his lungs, smoke filling them instead of oxygen. He was hyperventilating now, he was sure of it, but everything was ringing loudly.

He opened his eyes, fighting against his senses, attempting to stand in any way to even protect himself, without hurting his fellow hermit. The red eyes snapped to his, Tango smiling.

His laughter rang out, causing Grian’s searing headache to flare at him. “Finally.”

Grian found his way to his feet, trying his best to ignore the way the void was flickering into his vision more than normal, the spots invading it and then blending in with the background. Tango stepped towards him, taunting him with the way he twitched his hands.

“You can’t even stay standing and expect to defend yourself?” Tango spat, laughing once more.

Grian watched as Tango lifted an arm, dramatically slow to emphasize how Grian had no chance, even while he should’ve been severely prepared. Grian simply covered his face with his elbow, praying someone would wake him up.

He heard Tango shift, inch closer to him, laughing so close Grian could feel his breath on his arm. His stomach, jolting with regret, his body reacted, leg swinging upwards into Tango’s stomach, proven by the wheezes and short chuckles that succeeded the thud.

Grian, lowering his elbow, found his weight unable to switch to his other foot, causing him to awkwardly hobble and find himself on the ground.

“Didn’t think you had it in you,” It was followed by laughter, along with the noises one would use to identify someone scrambling to their feet. Some thuds, grunts, and then silence.

Tango appeared, towering above the sitting Grian, although still working his way for air. His face flickered to one of regret, even if just for a split second, Grian swore he saw the way he looked uncertain about his next move, though if brought on by some hope-induced hallucination was not out of the question. A sword appeared, it’s origins unclear to Grian’s slideshow vision, but he knew Tango was dangling it just above his chest now.

Tango’s smile was haunted with evil intentions, the blade lingering just above Grian. “I wonder how many times one of us can stab you until you finally give it up. Do you wanna find out?” Malice, the venom dripping off of each one of Tango’s words, was easily identifiable. 

Grian found himself lying still, writhing with the sudden pain. He felt warm and cozy, which was the oddest of the signals that identified a respawn. His vision blurred out, finding himself back on his feet with pains unimaginable still tingling in his chest. Each little cell of his skin screaming with a stabbing sensation echoing it. 

Grian swallowed, trying to dull each sensation that was prodding at him. Any time now he’d wake up, awoken by his friends, most likely bringing them some sort of pain in the process. It made guilt crawl up his veins, coursing through every part of his body. He grew distracted by Tango, who was smiling at him, stepping towards Tango again.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, it’s just not going to happen.”

Tango lunged forward, much to everyone’s surprise, his blade caught air instead of Grian, who was a couple steps off to the side. He wasn’t quite sure how he ended up away from Tango, but it meant he wasn’t being stabbed, so he didn’t raise an argument.

Whilst Tango was catching his misdirected balance, Grian lunged, grabbing onto the hilt of the sword and pulling it away, Tango falling against the ground. Grian closed his eyes, the sword now awkwardly in his hand.

Everything grew bright, so he carefully opened his eyes. Once again, he found himself clinging to someone, though this time it was Xisuma, he could tell by the gentle humming and the helmet that brushed against his neck.

Xisuma was holding him, rubbing circles into his back. It almost surprised Grian to find someone actually making contact with him, before reminding himself the nightmares were all just nightmares. Pain still danced around in his chest, making his steadying breaths even harder to take.

“Hey, Grian, it’s alright, try and breathe for me.”

He spiraled into coughing, unable to keep his breathing steady enough to sustain himself, his body kicking his shins and taking control. Xisuma pulled away from Grian, just to look down at him, almost surprised to find him awake.

“Grian?” He blinked once, pulling his hands away and bringing one around Grian’s neck and pulling him closer, the other patting his back to assist Grian’s coughing fit.

“Are you okay?” Xisuma was taken back by Grian asking it, seeing as those words were supposed to be coming out of his mouth.

“I’m just fine, why?”

Grian relaxed, the pain dancing away as everything settled, the calming atmosphere holding every small speck of dust captive, much more every burst of energy that disrupted it. “Every time I wake up lately I find someone hurt because of me,” He sputtered, guilt welling up in his chest.

“Yeah, you struggled away from me a little bit, but it’s alright, I just kinda held you,” Xisuma stated.

“So, I didn’t hurt you?” His voice sparked with hopefulness.

“Nope,” The quiet left Grian feeling slightly better, though it wasn’t quite silence with Doc and Iskall snoring. Xisuma felt bad for lying, he tried to focus on something else, “What happened this time, if you don’t mind me asking?” He whispered, quickly adding the second part.

“It was Tango,” Grian felt tears welling up, swiftly blinking them away and focusing on Xisuma’s breathing instead of his own words. “And he’s one of the ones who talks, which makes everything so much worse, because they taunt you the whole time and aren’t just blank-” His breaths were getting caught on his words, tumbling back into his throat harshly.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Xisuma squeezed Grian’s shoulder, trying his best to calm Grian down, to stop him from hyperventilating. Grian snapped back to reality, burying his face in Xisuma’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay, you don’t have to tell me-”

“I want to, it helps, just give me a moment.”

Xisuma silently rubbed his back, nodding at Grian’s words slightly. He heard Grian’s breathing steady, noticing the slight way Grian was trembling in his arms. After a couple moments of Grian remaining still, Xisuma silently wondered if he fell back asleep until he spoke up.

“Generally most of you don’t talk or smile, you guys just _ beat me up_,” His voice cracked slightly, laughter echoing after the words, doing his best to relieve the guilt that was teasing X. “But Tango is one of the ones who does talk, and calls me a coward and laughs every second of it, and doesn’t just straight fight, he taunts me,” Grian took a moment, blinking the memories away from his vision, “And when I respawn I don’t wake up- I respawn there and they’re always ready to fight again,”

“They make you respawn?” Xisuma was quiet, guilt tugging at his chest.

“They generally have swords, or in Doc’s case, a trident.”

Xisuma wrapped his body around Grian, holding him closer, wanting to protect him now forever. If he kept Grian close, nothing could hurt him.

“Thanks,” The sigh into Xisuma was barely audible, the thanks for letting Grian talk barely reaching X.

“Anytime,” He let go of Grian, ruffling his hair. “Wanna see what we have so far on this whole thing?” Xisuma had been up sorting through everything when Grian began sobbing.

“No, not really,” Grian laughed, rubbing his arm.

“You probably want out of here, hmm?” Xisuma stood, grabbing Grian’s hand and pulling him up to his feet.

Grian nodded, following Xisuma out of the crowded room, stepping over the sleeping people. The sky was extremely dark, stars dancing around, but gaining light rather quickly.

“Let’s go on a walk to the shopping district, hmm?” Xisuma nodded towards the boat they had used a couple hours beforehand. He slowly stepped in, helping ease Grian onto the boat. He rowed the boat towards the shopping district, humming slightly.

Grian glanced at his base as they rode by, doing his best not to fall asleep to Xisuma’s humming and the waves. It looked empty and lonely, and made his heart wrench. He wanted to go back to flying, to go back to working on it. Xisuma didn’t seem to notice the way Grian shifted awkwardly whilst looking at his base.

They arrived on the shopping district, Grian’s stomach churning upon looking at it. He felt uneasy now, but promised he wouldn't let Xisuma know. He was trying to help, he wouldn’t let him know.

Xisuma hoisted Grian out of the boat, pulling him onto the shore. He silently led him along for a moment, smiling up at the district. “Anything specific you wanna do?”

The world was spinning in Grian’s gaze, the ground under his feet shifting into air he could step on. He took a shaky step forward, regaining confidence in the world actually existing when he stepped. After a couple more he pulled Xisuma along with him, the only sound their footsteps.

He found himself outside the ITrade building, much to everyone’s surprise. He let go of Xisuma’s hand, his stomach rocking back and forth, gentle waves turning into tropical storms.

Xisuma had meant to come here anyway, look for clues, but was bewildered Grian would want to come here when he didn’t even want to talk about anything else, understandably.

Grian stared up at the sky for a moment, blinking around the memories rattling in his head.

* * *

_ His neck stung, the world was dancing, taunting his gaze by constantly manipulating in front of him, leaving him barely able to stand on his own two feet. He just wanted to go home and sleep whatever this illness was off, but for some reason, he couldn’t find the energy to move. _

_ Footsteps approached, light ones, causing Grian to snap into reality. He turned, a little too fast for his taste, his eyes meeting icy blue ones. They looked sad, pained, shifting blank after a simple blink. Armor shifted with each movement, a sword now in his hand. _

_ The ITrade building didn’t seem like the nice, bustling, hub Grian knew it to be. It was cold and lonesome, danger dancing about it. Grian turned, kicking off the ground, wings expanding to catch the air. _

_ Grian plummeted to the ground, pain spreading through Grian’s wings and up his back. His knees found the ground before his feet, knocking the wind out of him as his chest collided with his legs. He struggled, pulling away from the grasp on his wings, doing his best to kick off into the air. _

_ His scream echoed through the air, the pain ringing out across the shopping district. _

* * *

“Grian?” Xisuma was on his knees in front of Grian, who’s wings were doing their best to twitch wildly. One was partially wrapped around his body, protecting him from the outside dangers of the world. “Come back to me buddy, it’s alright.”

He was sobbing, shaking. The shattered memories were echoing in his mind, only bits and pieces presenting them as clear fact. Exhaustion was ticking away the energy to sob, the energy to focus on what he was seeing.

Xisuma, ignoring the emotions that were pulling at his back, picked Grian up, wrapping his arms under Grian and slowly lifting him. After a moment of readjusting, he carried Grian back to the boat, set him down and got in. Guilt pulled at Xisuma, he brought him to the shopping district.

The ride back was quiet, Grian leaning against Xisuma and falling asleep, snoring quietly. When they arrived, Xisuma sat, unsure of how to move without waking Grian. His heart pounded against his chest, guilt grabbing at every inch of his body. He shook it off, turning and nudging Grian, causing him to sit up for a moment.

“Hey, buddy, we’re back,” Xisuma scrambled out of the boat, grabbing at Grian and lifting him out. He didn’t really speak, just looking at X with confusion glazing his vision. He led Grian back inside, back to the warmth of his bed, and covered him up.

Xisuma heard Grian’s snore almost immediately, allowing him to block his emotions, even more, staring at the wall with all the clues. He had been adding to it slowly, pinning the red feather up and everything he knew about anything.

He buried his face in his hands, sleepiness overcoming him. He desperately wanted to stay awake, in case Grian had another nightmare he needed to be awakened from, but found his mind drifting into exhaustion.

Eventually, he fell asleep, propped up against the wall, paper in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: Nearly 2.3k  
remember what i said about puzzle pieces?
> 
> also i kinda hate this chapter? i mean like ok i love bits and pieces but idk man this felt wrong but im gonna post it anyways and hope it's not that bad-


	13. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have to start this by saying i am so sorry for the wait, and im gonna show you my schedule in the end notes because i feel awful for not posting this sooner ok-  
tw: they talk about the drugging for a hot moment

“Hey, Doc, wake up,” Iskall nudged the sleeping Doc, finding himself unable to move. Somehow, someway, Doc’s leg was over Iskall’s until his knee, bent under it. Doc’s arm was wedged in between Iskall’s back in the floor, just barely. It was enough to cause pain to stretch through Iskall’s back and Doc’s hand, though.

Doc shifted, pulling his hand closer to his own body and attempting to roll onto his side, finding himself unsuccessful. He pushed himself up with one arm, grumbling at the other arm’s pain. Upon finding the way their legs were entangled, he laughed, straightening out his leg the best he could.

Soon enough, the two were untangled, pulling their legs back to their own bodies. “Look at Xisuma,” Doc whispered, elbowing Iskall gently, pointing at X, who was standing, wedged in between a windowsill and the wall, snoring gently. His shoulders looked pinned back, trapping him into his position.

“When’d False get here?” Iskall was sitting up, staring down at the blonde who was dawning her normal clothes, because although  _ most _ of them knew this was going to be a sleepover, none of them brought their pajamas, because none of them had really considered the sleeping part of sleepover.

Glancing over at the windows, they both discovered nearly the same view, the sky dark with small light seeping into it. Sunrise, and everyone was asleep, which had to be some kind of record. Everyone asleep until now, anyways, due to the duo waking up.

Suddenly it clicked in their minds, almost instantly, they exchanged a look of confusion, neither of them registering what time False had gotten there, until they realized, False was there.

“False?” Doc whispered, looking over at her. She looked alright, cuddled into the floor with her blanket wrapped around her body. Iskall and Doc glanced at one another, both slowly rising to their feet.

Iskall, mind still dulled with sleep, pulled out his communicator, gasping upon seeing the missed messages. Doc, who seemed to be registering everything a little quicker, checked the messages through his eye. “Oh goodness, he seems alright, and so does she-”

“How’d she end up in Scar’s volcano?” Iskall’s voice rang out, silencing the sleeping hermits.

Doc grabbed his arm, dragging him around the body of False, letting her slight snores return. “How’d he get to the volcano?” Doc paused, glancing back inside, “There is a lot we missed it appears.”

“Let’s see what we can uncover then,” Iskall nodded at Doc, scampering back inside. He was next to Xisuma, almost instantly looking at the wall that housed the crude conspiracy board. Doc followed him over, taking in how the red string tied everything up.

The wall housed Wels’ feather, at the very top, where the string led to a sketch of Grian, which split off into two directions. The first direction had one word written on a small piece of paper, titled injuries, which led to a barely-identifiable sketch of a needle and Grian’s neck. Another segment of ‘injuries’ was Grian’s wing, the word broken scribbled beside it. Attached to the wing drawing was a half-formed bullet point, ‘stop from fleeing?’ A splotchy ink-spill of purple and blue, supposedly to represent a bruise, was attached, with the comment ‘hand-to-hand?’ written. A simple line of red, titled ‘cuts’ led to the notion of, in Xisuma’s half-awake words; ‘weapon?’ The other direction only had one segment of paper actually connected, it simply reading Wels’ name.

After a couple silent moments of reading Iskall turned towards Xisuma, glancing at the ground when a half-scribbled blur of lines caught his eye. A paper Xisuma must’ve been working on attaching before he fell asleep, Iskall concluded.

Doc slowly followed his eyeline after he finished up, bending down to pick up the paper. Once retrieved, they decided none of the assumed words were actually eligible, opting to put the paper in a corner for now. Doc inched towards Xisuma, gently tapping his shoulder. Upon being greeted with another snore, Doc wrapped his arms under Xisuma, hoisting him out of the corner. Xisuma, awoken by the sudden movement, pulled away, drawing a fist back until realizing who it was.

“Go lie down, buddy,” Was all Doc needed to say, setting Xisuma down and letting him walk towards the bed. Xisuma had no opposition, collapsing into the bed after hissing with a spike of pain. Iskall, in the meantime, had returned to the wall, examining a segment closer.

“Did you see what’s scribbled in the corner over here?” He whispered, drawing Doc’s attention back towards it. They both stared at it, swallowing harshly, because it truly did make sense. Drugged.

“That can’t be right, right?” Iskall murmured, barely making noise at all. Though, he was almost sure it was right, the way Grian couldn’t keep his eyes open, the dazed look, even the way Grian seemed to only hear half of what they had been saying.

Doc simply shook his head, what that meant remained unclear, but Iskall guessed it was a way to not think about it. Doc drew away from the wall, looking over at the feather and then Grian’s wing, restrained in a sling. “Where’d they get that?” He gestured to the feather.

“That’s something we’ll have to find out when one of them wakes.”

Doc stepped away from the sleeping hermits, pulling Iskall with him, back outside so they could be louder once again. “Stress was here this morning also, she brought False some clothes. False must’ve fallen into the water or somethi-”

“What’s the plan, Doc?” Iskall chuckled for a moment, interrupting Doc’s thoughts. “We can’t just sit here all day while we let them catch up on their much-needed sleep.”

“I don’t want to go home, I don’t want to work on anything,” Doc’s stomach was rocking back and forth, sending nervous knots up his throat. “We could see who is up, check on Impulse or Stress, or even the Convex.”

Iskall nodded, he did want to talk with the devious duo a little more, especially Scar. His mechanical eye, lighting up, flicked through the Hermits activity log, Cub’s dawning the idle symbol and Scar’s dawning the active one. “We could go see if Scar knows anything, he could barely stay awake while we were talking to him.”

“That’s true, where do you think he is?”

“Let’s ask, hmm?” Iskall pulled out his communicator, quickly typing a message to Scar. It dinged a couple moments later, Iskall showing Doc the _ ‘meet at shopping district in 5?’  _ message.

They both crept back inside, only to find Mumbo sitting up. He was rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands, his hair standing up on its ends. It was an utter mess, drawing his hands away from his face revealed his ever-persistent exhaustion, his tie strewn over his shoulder and suit jacket twisted from the way he had slept. He glanced over to where the two had taken up the floor, then back up at them, raising an eyebrow.

“Heya, Mumbo!” Iskall whispered, nudging Doc towards the chest where they had dumped their elytra.

“What are you two doing up?” It was almost silent, Mumbo not wanting to wake anyone else. He got up, Iskall waving him outside.

“Well, check your communicator,” As he led Mumbo outside, Mumbo stepped over False, and much to Iskall’s surprise, didn’t say anything. He assumed it had been Grian, Xisuma, and False who had been up in the middle of the night, due to the messages and Xisuma’s lack of lying down.

“Oh goodness! Are they alright?” Mumbo turned to face the room, nodding at the three who still slept.

“Yeah, it all seems to have settled down, but we just woke up ourselv-” Iskall paused, Mumbo whipping around, staring back in the room.

“False is here?” He stood, eyes widened with shock. “Never struck her as the sleepover type.”

“You stepped over her, spoon!” He elbowed Mumbo in the ribs, gently, prompting Mumbo to look at his feet, nodding with the realization of his stupidity.

Holding two elytras with one strapped on his back, Doc exited, handing each one their respective elytra. “You wanna come with us to talk with Scar?”

“Sure!” Mumbo nodded, stopping for a moment to look at Grian. “We won’t be long, right?”

“I’m sure it will be quick,” Iskall nudged Mumbo, smiling at him with reassurance, “Besides, Xisuma and False are still here.”

“I know, I know,” He didn’t care to elaborate further, looking back to Doc who was handing Iskall a couple of rockets. “How long have you two been up?”

“Not long, we were just looking at the wall- how’s Impulse?” Doc quickly shifted the conversation on to Mumbo, doing his best to avoid the questions that were nipping at his tongue, not wanting to bombard him. Everyone kicked off the ground, finding their way into the sky.

“Not sleeping well, just like the rest of us, that’s all,” Mumbo let the words cautiously leave, even though he knew it wasn’t the full truth. The full truth was a mystery to everyone but Impulse, for the time being.

“Where’d you guys find Wels’ feather?” Doc was being very careful, watching each word he said before it made itself known to the world.

Mumbo stopped for a moment, in one moment the entire question silenced each one of the stray thoughts that bounced around in his mind. “It was in Grian’s pocket,” He swallowed over the implications that came right along with his words.

“Alright then,” They found their way onto the ground, Mumbo in specific stumbling over his own feet upon landing. Scar was standing, hands on his hips, looking at them.

“What are you three doing up?”

“We could ask you the same question!” Iskall bounced around, energy coursing through his body. He wouldn’t remain still for the life of him, constantly moving his hands or feet.

“We’ve all just really woke up,” Mumbo added, softly, attempting to grab Iskall’s wrist.

“Sorry about him, apparently he’s hyper when he wakes up,” Doc scoffed, turning his gaze to catch Mumbo now chasing Iskall around.

“It’s alright!” Scar laughed, crossing his arms over his chest, “I was just working on building, so what’s up?” Scar yawned out the last couple of words, blinking the sleepiness from his vision.

“You should really sleep more,” Doc said, preparing to scold Scar or- at this point- Iskall. “Anyways, we just wanted to know if you remembered what we told you about Grian, due to you barely keeping your eyes open the whole time.”

Scar paused for a moment, chuckling. “I don’t believe so, why? Is he alright?”

Doc hesitated, wondering how much of the story to tell. He didn’t want to worry the already sleepless Scar, but didn’t want to lie to him too much either. He’d surely have questions, it was a given with this sort of thing. “Grian’s found himself in a sticky situation, per usual, just this time, we’re not sure what exactly happened. His wing is broken and he got beat up pretty bad, so we’d just figured we’d let everyone kn-”

Scar visibly tensed up, concern flashing across his face. “Is he alright?” Scar’s voice was low, Iskall and Mumbo hollering in the background, nearly drowning out Scar’s quiet words.

“He’s gonna be fine, yeah, but right now he’s in a decent bit of pain- and Cub already offered to use Concorp drones if he needed.”

Scar shifted his weight, letting his arms drop to his sides. “And he’s gonna be one-hundred percent okay?”

“Yeah, he’ll bounce back, it’s Grian.”

“Yeah, it’s Grian,” Scar nodded, looking up at Doc. His yawn silenced whatever words he was about to say, an unrecognizable emotion flickering across his face for a brief second.

“I think it’s time for you to go to sleep, Scar,” He was essentially whispering, quiet words immediately suffocated by Iskall’s constant movements and exclamatory remarks towards Mumbo.

“I think you’re right, thanks Doc,” Scar turned on his heels and vanished almost instantly.

“You two!” The words faded out with each rocket he let into the air, his heart stuck in the vice against his chest.

“It’s just Grian, it’s Grian, Grian’s strong, he’ll be alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words:2k
> 
> and now the weather- i mean my schedule  
I basically get up at 6, head to school at 710, start school at 8, end school at 3, immediately start theatre from 3-6 (3-530 on fridays and 3-10 during hell week, which is the week of the performance which is coming up) then i get home at 630 and try to eat and write, then I've got homework and most days I'm so tired I sleep at 9, tho I'm trying to stay awake 'til 11  
So yeah! I hope that sheds light on why I just vanished, but I'm doing my best. (Saturday's I don't have rehearsals((til the show)) and Sundays I work 12-7)
> 
> ps posted this on my phone so... if something messed up it should be fixed later im so sorrrry


	14. Who's Hiding Behind Those Eyes

Doc and Iskall had left to go talk to Impulse, double-check he was okay and double-check he was sleeping. They had offered for Mumbo to go, but he decided to hang back and wait for Xisuma, Grian and or False to wake. He was staring at the board, nodding at Xisuma’s little notes.

His attention was drawn away by a ding, a lone message from Impulse in direct messages.

* * *

** _ImpulseSV:_ ** _ Iskall and Doc just left here, I need to talk to all of you, they’re coming to get you. _

** _MumboJumbo:_ ** _ Impulse, are you okay? _

** _ImpulseSV:_ ** _ I’m sorry. _

** _MumboJumbo:_ ** _ Hey, it’s gonna be alright, are you okay? _

** _MumboJumbo: _ ** _ Impulse??? _

* * *

Mumbo closed the communicator, quickly scribbling a note along the lines of ‘at Impulse’s with Doc and Iskall’ and stepped outside. Adjusting the elytra on his back, he prepared to pull the rockets. Taking a moment to steady his own breathing out of worry, he pushed off into the skies, preparing to circle his base.

It wasn’t long until he saw Doc and Iskall, though, it felt like an eternity. They slowly explained that Impulse was meeting them at the ITrade building, seeing as they had found him in the shopping district.

“He hadn’t been asleep is my guess,” Iskall let the wind carry his words, drift over to Doc and Mumbo and disappear away.

“He looked exhausted, but not sleepy,” Doc replied.

“He must be running on adrenaline,” Iskall said, firing another rocket into the sky.

Upon arriving and subsequently circling ITrade, they spotted no Impulse. All three landed, some more graceful than others, Mumbo nearly tripping on his own feet. After recovering, they all felt the worry grasp at their legs, holding them in place just outside the ITrade building.

“Impulse!” Iskall called. Upon relative silence, he slipped away from Doc and Mumbo, who were standing paralyzed, only to return with his ITrade Pass from an enderchest.

“Impulse, are you in here?” Doc and Mumbo followed Iskall inside, his hollering disturbing the hums of villagers.

“Impulse?” Doc joined in, leaving Mumbo standing quietly.

Mumbo flicked out his communicator, messaging Impulse again. Another call from Iskall and no response. “Shush.”

Iskall and Doc turned to question him, only to hear the small  _ ding  _ of a communicator. Worry was grasping onto every single one of Mumbo’s limbs, dragging his spiraling thoughts back down to Earth with him.

Mumbo started messaging him again, only to pause upon hearing a few  _ brzzzt’s,  _ vibrations. “That wasn’t me,” He was quiet, so much so that his voice barely pierced the air around him. He quickly sent a message, the ding echoing around ITrade.

After a few more vibrations, Doc held up Impulse’s communicator. “Let’s see who he has silenced, shall we?” He flicked it open, brows furrowing upon realizing Impulse had over 100 messages from Tango he had left unchecked. That wasn’t like Impulse, not to one of his best friends. Iskall was beside Doc, gasping upon realizing all the messages from Tango. Doc didn’t dare click on them, setting the communicator in his pocket, next to his own.

“Tango has messaged him over 100 times, and he hasn’t even opened them.”

“Tango’s the one who asked if anyone had seen Impulse,” Mumbo added, guilt tugging at his heart. This wasn’t right, something was clearly wrong and now Impulse was missing. He just let Impulse go home, he didn’t even follow him and make him sleep. His thoughts were getting louder, fighting to be heard with his heart being the loudest of everything. It was pounding in his ears and drowning out the rationality some of his thoughts were trying to provide.

“Mumbo, come back to me, buddy.”

Mumbo blinked, looking at Iskall, who was hugging him. Mumbo wrapped his arms back around Iskall, squeezing once to let the worry leave his body. “I’m here, it’s alright.”

Iskall squeezed back before drawing away, shooting Doc a look that caught Mumbo’s eye. Doc was standing, rather blank, only to be snapped back by Iskall. Was that an “I-Told-You-So look?” It caused Mumbo to chuckle, just slightly letting two short breaths out.

Mumbo pulled out his own communicator, quickly messaging the group chat something along the lines of “if you see Impulse let me know,” and began rubbing his temples. “If I were an Impulse who was possibly-” The words got caught in his throat, his mind flicking towards what had auto-filled.  _ Kidnapped. _ That wasn’t possible, that wasn’t allowed- those words wouldn’t dare make themselves welcome.

“He possibly got lost,” Mumbo corrected, clearing his throat. That sounded pathetic, gotten lost. He definitely just got lost and left his communicator in ITrade and his last words were his sorries to Mumbo. That was definitely it.

“We should check those messages, I know it’s none of our business, but it’s our only lead.”

The ITrade door flicked open, revealing Tango, who’s hands gently rested at his sides. “Where’s Impulse?”

“He’s vanished,” Doc quickly spoke, jumping at the new visitor.

“I said to let me know if anyone’s seen him,” Mumbo added.

Iskall looked over to Tango, glancing at Doc, his mind wandering off track. What could the messages be about, and why was Impulse ignoring his friend?

“I have to go, you two, stay safe,” Mumbo’s voice was haunted with worry, the slightest traces latching onto the words. He chuckled, waving a goodbye.

“What was that about?” Tango crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.

“Just worried about Grian, I’m sure,” Iskall hummed.

“How is Grian?”

“He’s alright! He was even up and moving last night,” Doc said.

“Oh, good.”

Mumbo was spiraling through the air, heart caught in his throat, limiting his breathing. Some part of him simply needed to check the STAR base, where he last saw Impulse. With the ever-growing stressful air that was as suffocating as smoke, he needed to leave. Something about Tango was causing his heart to jerk violently in place.

He landed, the elytra wings folding on his back. The world was spinning around his vision, creating tunnels of clear sight. He stepped towards the door of the STAR base, quietly opening it.

“Impulse, buddy, are you here?” His voice scared each dust particle that was spinning in the newly disturbed air.

It also scared Impulse, who was curled into a ball in the very corner. He held his breath, holding onto the silence that had left him with his thoughts for a moment longer. Mumbo called again, deciding to shift upward towards him. “I’m here, yeah,” His voice was cracking, the dam growing in his throat holding each word tight.

“Impulse, you scared me!” He collapsed to his knees next to Impulse, wrapping his arms around him without another word.

“I’m sorry.”

“What happened?”

“I should’ve just told someone- anyone,” He writhed with each word, collapsing into Mumbo and confessing his secrets. “Tango’s not really Tango, that’s not who I know anymore. It’s not Tango and he knows I know- he caught me following him around and told me not to tell,” The words were collapsing around him, pain wrenching its way into the room. “That’s not Tango.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is v v v short i am sorry but 1. wanted to actually get this one out (i've been playing lots of minecraft recently and yeah) 2. it serves its purpose...  
Words: 1.1k? something like that
> 
> hehehehehe cliffhangers because yes :)


	15. Story Told

“What do you mean that’s not Tango?” Mumbo pulled away from their embrace to lock eyes with Impulse, who hadn’t slept for several days. It was obvious now, the way he was struggling to un-slur his words and clarify himself to Mumbo, the way he could barely keep his eyes open. He was struggling to focus his thoughts in an order that made sense to the world outside his mind. The world was spinning in circles, so lacing an orderly train of thoughts seemed near impossible.

“I mean that isn’t our friend. I don’t know for how long, but it hasn’t been him for a while, kinda, it’s still kinda- all I know is this: that is a malicious being, and if I was thinking rationally, I still might not have told you, so aren’t you lucky I haven’t slept yet-” The words were tumbling out of his mouth, catching up on the breaths he was trying to take. 

“Impulse! Slow down!” Mumbo grabbed his friend’s shoulders, pulling him back into his arms. Impulse’s shuddering breaths buried themselves deep into Mumbo’s jacket, he was constantly moving, most likely to stay awake. “It’s alright, it’s gonna be okay.”

“That’s not Tango- not unless Tango has these purple-glowy eyes sometimes and thr-” The words caught back up in his throat. He let go of a soft, half-formed sob, wrapping his arms around Mumbo’s neck tighter. After a moment of calming himself back down, his voice dulled, losing all of it’s edge, instantly being replaced with the exhaustion he had grown sick of fighting. “Not unless Tango threatens his friends.”

“Come on, let’s get you home.”

“No!” He pulled away from Mumbo for a moment, only to fall weak compared to Mumbo’s grasp around his back. “I don’t want to go home.”

It all clicked in Mumbo’s mind, why Impulse had been in the STAR base. Tango couldn’t truly get in without seeming oddly suspicious, now, and before there were always lots of STAR members around. He held onto Impulse tighter, guilt tugging at his heart, rubbing small, instinctive, circles on his back.

“What are we gonna do, Mumbo?” He almost didn’t hear it, although pressed against his ear, Impulse’s words nearly lost themselves in the wind, to the shallow breaths they were both taking.

“You’re gonna come home with me and sleep. We have some of the best fighters in our little party at the moment, and we won’t let Tango know,” Mumbo finally decided, even if Impulse disagreed it wouldn’t matter, he’d just drag him there himself.

It was a long silence before Impulse finally agreed, in his own way, neither one letting go of one another. “So, who’s all there?”

Doc and Iskall watched Tango go, both of their stomach’s deciding now was a great time to practice dancing. They both were waiting for a message, a sign, anything from Mumbo that let them know where he went, or why he went, anything to bring clarity to the confusion they both wore on their faces.

“What is going on, Doc?” Iskall had finally broken their continued silence, his arms crossed against his chest. “These are our friends, right?” He didn’t look at Doc, and just hoped Doc would continue their conversation without taking his gaze off the door. He could feel the tears prick at his eye and beg for release, only to find the tears rolling down his cheek as he gave in.

“Of course they’re our friends,” Doc complied with silent wishes, unknowingly, but he was still watching the door in disbelief. “These are our friends,” His voice was shaking, ever so slightly, Doc’s mind not focusing on any facade, rather on the mysterious words Tango had left them alone with. 

Iskall couldn’t say another word for fear of a sob being let go. He could tell Doc didn’t believe it, either, the way his voice nervously flicked was quite apparent to Iskall. This was all wrong and none of them were talking about it. It was suffocating to think these people he’s known for so long to suddenly up and vanish on him, up and vanish on every ounce of normality he had. Everything was sudden, this turn, this change. It wasn’t fair, anymore, he just wanted things back to the way it was. He could feel anger welt in his chest, burning his lungs with the ambition of a way to take out his anger. He wanted to scream, to throw something. Though, the thoughts that raced around his mind scared him, growing larger and each scheme to let go of his anger growing more grand with each new dash around.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Doc had turned while Iskall was caught up in his thoughts, wrapping his arms around the other and pulling him close. He could tell the way Iskall’s knuckles had turned white and the streaks of tears had slowed, he was trapped in his own thoughts, and it was Doc’s job to get him out, just as Iskall had done to Mumbo earlier. “We’ve always made it through stuff like this,” He said, sighing slightly as Iskall leaned into him. This wasn’t normal, not for the overly-energetic Iskall.

Worn out by his own thoughts he did his best to spit out any remaining anger left in his system. “There’s been no, like  _ this _ , there has been nothing like this before- not seriously, not  _ this _ .” 

And Doc knew he was right. His objections, lies, he was preparing to spell out for Iskall to comfort him, got interrupted by a ding.

* * *

** _MumboJumbo:_ ** _ Go home. _

** _Docm77: _ ** _ Are you gonna explain to us what’s going on? _

** _MumboJumbo: _ ** _ Just don’t let Tango know where you’re going and meet me back home. _

** _Docm77: _ ** _ Hey, Mumbo, you wanna stop being vague? _

** _MumboJumbo: _ ** _ Impulse is okay, if that makes you feel any better, I’ll explain more back at home base, maybe grab some more blankets and stuff? _

** _Docm77:_ ** _ Don’t take forever, and we will. _

* * *

_ Why didn’t he tell anyone? _ The guilt was trapping his heart into an almost-still motion, accompanied by the shallow breaths he was taking. He glanced down at his hands, plucking a thought from his mind to reaffirm the notion they were his own. These were his own hands, he was in control. Burying his face in the now confirmed-to-be-his-own hands, he let go a tired sigh. It was just Grian, he’d bounce back on his own.

Though, he doubted it was him who hurt Grian, especially with how calm Doc seemed to be with him. That or they didn’t know. Those thoughts of guiltiness had plummeted themselves into his stomach, planting the seeds of eternal self-hatred. He needed to tell someone about this, but he felt his heart sink at the notion. They’d all hate him.

They’d all hate him, and he couldn’t handle that again.  _ Again? They’ve never... _

* * *

Mumbo and Impulse arrived first, followed by Doc and Iskall who had gone to get more blankets and pillows. A shulker box full, in fact, so much so, that pride was beaming on each of their faces. Doc and Iskall wrapped their arms around Impulse, eventually letting go and standing back with expectant looks, only to be stopped by Mumbo.

“Go to bed, Impulse,” Getting blankets shoved into his arms, he complied not having the energy to voice any arguments at all. Mumbo turned back to the duo, who were shocked at how exhausted Impulse looked upon closer inspection. “There’s something seriously wrong, he wasn’t making the most sense, but once he calmed down he said Tango threatened him,” Mumbo’s voice dropped, whispers being drowned out by the sea in case of any unwanted ears.

The waves crashed against the blocked out land, blue shimmering with the sun that was steadily flowing across the sky. The sky was lighting up quite nicely, clouds playing with the quickly-fading purples, the world giving the kindest forms of greeting to the hermits who were awake.

“Tango? They’re best friends, wha-”

“He said it’s not Tango,” sitting on the edge, letting his feet dangle over the water he saw his own reflection, watching it talk back at him. Doc and Iskall joined him as he continued, “He said that it wasn’t Tango,” He was hushed, trying to recount everything said to him. “That it was someone who’s eyes glowed or something?”

“Say Impulse isn’t just out of his mind nuts,” Iskall was kicking his feet, dangling them above the waters below. “Then that means maybe it’s not our friends?” He tried not to let his voice pique with hope, though it was bubbling just below the surface.

“That could explain the whole Wels thing,” Doc said.

Mumbo remained silent, finding his hope rising as well. His attention was drawn away from Iskall’s kicking feet and back towards the small box Mumbo called his room, which seemingly half of the hermits had crammed themselves into. Doc and Iskall glanced at him, turning their attention back to the room. Without a word, he rose, raising a hand to command silence as he stalked towards the detailed white box.

Doc and Iskall exchanged a look, Doc raising an eyebrow at Mumbo but complying in remaining silent. They stuck close behind him, following him back into his own room where Xisuma and Grian lie in bed, Impulse and False on the floor. As Mumbo readjusted, furrowing his brow in confusion, Xisuma rolled over to face them, sitting up. 

He quietly huffed upon realizing his neck hurt due to his helmet, then paused questioning how he got to the bed. He silently wondered how long he had been awake for, due to the nightmares tossing him around so harshly he had woken up.

* * *

_ “I’m not stupid, I’m just dreaming,” Xisuma fell to his knees, guilt washing over him in waves. Each wave knocked his attempted optimism down, causing the whole positive operation to crash down on top of him. It simply knocked him further into the purple void he was floating in, struggles to keep himself upright fading. He was fighting to remind himself he was doing everything he could, that this couldn’t of been his fault. _

_ “Obviously, it’s your fault,” Wels’ voice echoed through his thoughts, instinctively drawing a disappointed sigh. Of course his internal thoughts were taking form in his friends. His friends, right, the ones he was stuck in his own hell because of. _

_ “You blame us, hmm?” False’s arms crossed over her chest, Doc standing next to her, shaking his head. _

_ “Xisuma, you really do hate us, don’t you?” He whipped around to see a sobbing Grian, Mumbo and Iskall at his sides glaring down at him. _

_ “You know that isn’t true!” Xisuma was struggling harder against his own will, managing to get to his own feet in the newfound ‘ground’ below them. “This isn’t real, you’re all just my thoughts.” _

_ With that, they vanished, leaving the silence as their testament to his last response. He was correct, they weren’t really his friends. Wels reappeared, still holding onto the silence for a moment. His taunting demeanor had shifted into one of seriousness, simply standing with his hands resting at his sides. He was staring at Xisuma, intently, but he looked nothing like Wels anymore, just a figure that vaguely resembled him. “Yet, your thoughts are even questioning if you hate your friends.” _

_ He was alone, squeezing his eyes shut for as long as possible. He didn’t want to even open them to find anything there, he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts being drowned out by the pain surging down his neck. Though, he noticed the gentle waves, rocking themselves into the terraformed land outside, he was awake now, buried in the black world of the inside of his eyelids. _

* * *

“What are you doing up?” Mumbo tilted his head, whispering to avoid stirring anyone else. He extended a hand to Xisuma, leaning over Impulse and False who were nicely planted in the middle of the floor. Xisuma stood, head spinning from how quickly it was, and grabbed his hand. Turning to look at the newfound member, then at False and Grian, he sighed with relief. He turned back to Doc and Iskall, smiling at their un-hostile faces.

As he was dragged out his mind processed the question Mumbo asked ages ago. He looked up, smiling up at Mumbo who smiled back, letting his nerves numb with warmth. “Guess it was just time for me to get up and resume working on the board,” He paused, glancing up at the sky, “plus, I normally get up around sunrise.”

“You fell asleep standing up, do you remember almost punching me?” Doc chuckled, causing Xisuma’s stomach to lurch, just slightly.

“Oh goodness, are you alright?” He avoided the question, focusing his gaze on Doc.

“Yeah, you realized it was me and settled, plus I startled you while you were sleeping. I’m kinda surprised I didn’t get punched, actually,” Doc playfully nudged Xisuma, smiling.

“You probably want to know about Impulse, and we want to know about False, so this works!”

“This is a win-win, I suppose,” Doc nudged Iskall, a warning to settle down.

“Plus, we have some new, uh, developments,” Mumbo’s voice had dropped to a whisper, staring at his feet as if they would run away and leave his body behind.

“Well, Impulse first, alright?” Xisuma waited with baited breath, his heart slowing down to quiet the constant beats in X’s ears.

“He hasn’t been sleeping and is scared, and would probably only sleep here, or in the STAR base, so he’s here so we can keep an eye on him,” Mumbo started, trying not to divulge too much.

“Scared?”

“Of Tango,” Iskall quickly replied, hope shining through his voice. He was overly-energetic once again, eagerly ready to contribute the theory- if Impulse’s mind after sleep still proved it to be possibly correct.

“What do you mean scared of Tango? What are you talking about?” Xisuma almost couldn’t decipher the look Iskall was giving him, but it shimmered just slightly in the light that he almost swore he could recognize as hope.

“He claims that Tango isn’t Tango...” Mumbo’s voice trailed off, searching Xisuma’s face for any reaction.

“But he was definitely depleted of all sanity after his adrenaline was the only thing keeping him awake, he certainly was scared, terrified, to the point he wouldn’t sleep,” Doc added, hoping to clarify.

“He said Tango threatened him,” Mumbo continued.

“He had a lot of muted messages from him as well,” Iskall took Mumbo’s pausing to consider his words as his option to talk.

Doc stepped forward, handing Impulse’s communicator to Xisuma, who stared at it blankly. It was sometimes hard to tell what the man was thinking with his face hidden behind a visor, but Doc wondered if it was shock.

“He said Tango had purple glow-y eyes, something like that,” Mumbo held up his hand this time to keep Iskall quiet, “but that could’ve just been the sleep- or lack of it. Anyways, he must’ve panicked because he messaged me he was sorry and that you guys were on your way,” He glanced between the two who had started whispered off to the right of Mumbo and Xisuma. “I finally got him to go home, he was in the STAR base, presumably hiding from Tango because he can’t go inside of there.”

“He did spend a lot of time in the STAR base, just passively, now that I think about it,” Xisuma added.

“And that’s what we know,” Iskall pulled away from Doc for a moment, eagerly awaiting Xisuma’s story now.

“Well, False woke up in Scar’s volcano,” Xisuma began, motioning towards the direction of the giant structure, “and Grian was the only one awake,” the guilt began dripping into Xisuma’s voice, just enough Mumbo seemed to notice the way his words had shifted.

“We were all tired, it’s been a long couple of days, anyway, continue?”

Xisuma nodded, waiting for the words to return to him. “Well, False messaged all of us, as you know, and Grian decided to find his way over there, without waking us up. He found a boat and I woke up sometime in there, and then they came back, Stress scolded them and brought False her clothes, and then False went to go get blankets and stuff.”

Iskall was quiet now, still watching Xisuma, only to realize he was done and resume the energetic bouncing. “I wish I could’ve seen Stress scold them.”

“It was funny,” X nodded, looking at Mumbo who was staring at his base, absent-mindedly. “So what’s the plan?”

It drew Mumbo from his thoughts, looking up at X. “We shouldn’t do anything until at least False is awake, and we need some sort of buddy system. We also could add this new information to the board,” He finished, brushing his hands on his suit jacket. “And figure out better living situations.”

“Guess it’s sorted then, Doc and Iskall, come help me with the board?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 2.8k  
Sorry for the wait, also this was posted on my phoneee so yeahhhh


	16. Crossing The Lines

The sun had drawn the color back to the sky, where the pinks washed off into gentle blues and painted the air around them with gentle breezes. Mumbo had begun planning what to do with this whole living arrangement fiasco, locking himself in his storage system, bouncing around and searching for possible materials. Doc, Iskall, and Xisuma were scribbling what Impulse had told Mumbo, trying to decide how to sort the new information out. They had decided to sort it into possibly true and possibly not true, and link up the  _ ‘Tango’s not Tango,’ _ fact up with Wels. Doc and Iskall’s idle chatter danced around the room, eventually they’d both get excited, drifting too far away from the shore, to be reeled back in by Xisuma.

Though, Iskall hollered something of agreement, something about the notion of setting a new get-rich-quick scheme up, only to be kicked by Xisuma. This time, it didn’t matter, Grian sat up, rubbing his eyes and staring at the frozen and silent trio.

“Good morning!” Doc called, turning back down to the paper in front of him.

“What’s everyone doing up?” Grian’s voice was soft, looking between the two pairs of eyes staring back at him.

“Well, it is morning time and some of us actually slept nicely instead of running off on adventure missions,” Iskall shot, adding a small “hmm?” to the end, raising an eyebrow and instantly breaking into a smile.

“Oh yeah,” Grian chuckled, fidgeting with his fingers. “But, Xisuma was on that mission-kinda, also.”

“Well, Xisuma’s an early riser.”

Xisuma had resumed drawing already, quietly betting with himself how long it would take Grian to notice the new addition, who wasn’t even all that noticeable. He had curled up next to False, buried deep under a comforter, looking much like a randomly strewn pillow of False’s.

“X also fell asleep standing up, isn’t that right?” Doc’s light-hearted voice was almost as intimidating as the voice he put on when he was  _ trying  _ to be scary. He reminded X too much of how quickly Stress could jump from caring to scolding by barely changing the tone of her voice.

“Xisuma!” Grian turned to face him, resting his head in his palms.

“I’m fine, I was just working on something and lost track of time-”

“In the back of your eyelids!” Iskall set down the pen he was using, letting it harshly drop as he let the fit of laughter take over. Doc and Grian both let go of a couple of snorts, whereas Xisuma just sighed in frustration, presumably frustration, anyways.

After a moment of quiet wheezes from Iskall, induced by himself, Grian looked around, realizing someone missing. “Where’s Mumbo?”

“Working on trying to find a place for us to camp out, seeing as we’re all here.”

Grian glanced at Xisuma, then at the duo who had resumed drawing and talking, finally finding his gaze over to False. Yeah, they were a little cramped. He stood, taking a moment to stretch before continuing with anything else, his wing twitching instinctively, glancing back at his one confined wing.

“How are you feeling, Grian?” Xisuma pulled himself up from his lying position, crossing his legs and letting the paper he was working on drift slightly away from the movement.

He paused. He didn’t want to answer because for the first time in a long while he wasn’t woken up due to his realities colliding, his movements real, and his friends growing worried. For the first time, it was the screams that crossed realities. His pause lingered. Grian adjusted, making sure not to be rendered immobile by Xisuma’s question, forcing himself to mutter out something along the lines of ‘okay.’ X gave him a look, getting to his feet and pulling Grian along now.

“Don’t lie to me now,” He sat down, raising an eyebrow at Grian. “Was it another dream?”

* * *

_ Why did it have to be Iskall?  _ Though, as much as he hated the fact it was Iskall, he was thankful for the silence that accompanied him. But, Iskall- a hitman, would certainly be able to beat Grian. Grian had gotten better at dodging, at throwing his weight around and pulling away, but Iskall would be much quicker.

“You don’t have to fight me, you know, we could just talk!” Grian let go of a nervous laugh, stepping back, further into the abyss that claimed his life each time he appeared back here. Iskall simply smiled at his comment before resuming blank, taking a couple of steps towards Grian.

Iskall slammed his foot into Grian’s chest upon knowing he was close enough. The air drained away, leaving Grian’s head spinning as he landed on his back. It was weird to think of the teddy bear Iskall as a threat, to think of someone who was currently protecting him on the flipside, fighting him. Grian wheezed for a moment, a foot against his chest making the air harder to contain. His mind flicked to a dangerous spot, to simply defend himself, but he shook those thoughts away, someone got hurt in reality if he struggled here. Pushing himself up, onto his knees, away from Iskall, he continued to struggle for air. Focusing his vision in front of him, he rose, bouncing onto his feet and pushing himself backward. Iskall stepped forward, leaning into a swing. Grian, in one quick, numb-minded moment, grabbed Iskall’s wrist, pulling his wrist harshly and knocking him off balance. He stumbled, nearly falling into Grian, who’s grip lingered upon realizing what he had done. He squeezed his eyes shut, shoving the copycat as hard as he could, falling as he let go of Iskall.

It was Iskall’s undecipherable holler that snapped him out of it. He couldn’t have actually hurt Iskall, right? He felt cold upon sitting up, all alone. Though, rubbing his eyes revealed no one hurt in front of him, in fact, three of his friends sitting in a circle on the floor.

* * *

“It was Iskall, this time,” Grian mumbled, sitting down outside, next to Xisuma. Resting his face in his palms he sighed, rubbing his eyes once more.

“You know he wouldn’t ever hurt you,” Xisuma rubbed Grian’s back, above his wings, rubbing small circles and pulling him closer. “You know he’s here protecting you.”

“Yeah, I know, and I,” He sucked a breath in, blinking the memories away, “I thought I hurt him, being woken up by him yelling rather than waking up by someone else, if that makes sense,” His voice dropped to a whisper, leaning against Xisuma, “that was scary, because most of the time you guys tend to wake me up on purpose, and Iskall woke me up and Iskall was the one I was dreaming about.”

Xisuma hummed, understanding everything he was being told so far, wrapping his arms around Grian. He could hear the chatter of Iskall and Doc, their words drifting off into space, though he was sure he had picked up some more about their scheme, before focusing his attention on Grian again. He rested his chin on Grian’s head, thinking silently while he waited for Grian to continue.

“I got scared, X, I got scared and,” He stumbled over his own words, trying to decide what to tell Xisuma. He didn’t want to be hated, but that didn’t make sense, why would they hate him? “I pushed him away and closed my eyes and he was silent, then I heard him yell, and I thought I hurt him.”

“Well, you didn’t hurt him, or anyone, Grian,” He squeezed tight, for a moment, before relaxing once more. “You wouldn’t hurt anyone unless you had too, Grian, we all know that, you know that.”

Grian’s mind sputtered, looking for words. He knew X was right, but rationality wasn’t sitting with them, guilt was instead. Guilt was singing quietly into Grian’s head, serenading little seedlings of lies in his mind.

“And you know I’m right,” Xisuma chuckled, letting go of Grian and standing up. He helped Grian up, lifting him up with ease and setting him on his feet. “Don’t worry about it, alright?”

Grian nodded quietly, shifting his weight and humming in agreement. He looked back at Xisuma, who was squinting at the sky, following his gaze revealed the falling embers of fireworks. Xisuma pulled out his communicator, drifting back inside as he typed. Iskall and Doc looked up, smiling and turning back towards one another. The papers they were scribbling on had long since been abandoned, lounging against the wall and discussing their new scheme, not that they had any idea what that would be, just that it would be lots of diamonds in both of their pockets.

A small thump interrupted their discussion, along with a groan, Xisuma turning and helping Mumbo up. He smiled, bouncing over to the room and straight to Grian, looking at him joyously. He stopped, took a breath, and turned to Doc, Iskall, and now Xisuma who had sat next to them, waving. “I’m stealing Grian,” And with a couple of swift movements, Grian was being dragged along, albeit gently, by Mumbo, the two of them laughing, Mumbo’s excitement infectious.

“Mumbo! Where are we going? Slow down!” Grian tugged against Mumbo’s grasp on his wrist, bringing them to a stop.

“Just here!” Mumbo was grinning endlessly, plopping down the minute he let go of Grian’s wrist. As Grian sat down, Mumbo’s excitement drained, his smile slipping away and his gaze losing its gentle warmth it had before, cold concern replacing it. “Are you okay, Grian?” He settled his sights on Grian’s black eye, which had faded just slightly since he had crashed on Mumbo’s base a couple of nights ago.

“I’m okay, I’m okay now, anyway, and it’ll be okay,” He mumbled, adjusting quietly, not wanting to delve into his mistrust and his “unsure-how-to-feel-about-friends” scenario. He wanted to ignore every single thought that his friends couldn’t be his friends and were trying to hurt him in some way. Those thoughts weren’t allowed. Not now anyways.

“Okay,” Mumbo’s excitement ticked back in, though worry was hiding behind such a thin veil. He wanted to tell Grian he was there for him, but he was sure Grian knew that, subconsciously or otherwise. “I need some help designing this space, and why not ask one of the best builders I know?” His smile had fully returned, hope dancing with his voice. 

“Of course I’ll help!” His wings almost fluttered with excitement, before he remembered that doing so would most likely bring him pain, and that would bring worry. He didn’t want to worry anyone. “Show me what ideas you’ve got!”

* * *

“What will I do when they realize what happened?” He paced back and forth, his words vanishing as quickly as he mumbled them.

When he fell asleep the world drifted into the void, where he remembered nothing when he woke. Nothing, nothing, but remnants of something his mind tried to tune out. Faded as quickly as he opened his eyes, gone when he tried to search for something he knew existed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> words: 1.8k  
i actually wrote part of the next chapter before I finished this, because it is tied into something I was very heavily hinting at and I don't think anyone will get, so we'll have to see. it's a doozy.


	17. When The World Paused

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He does have something to feel guilty about.  
TW: Blood, Violence

He couldn’t pull his gaze away from his hands, the mere sight of them making him nauseous. Mumbo had declared nap time just a couple of moments ago, pain placing bricks in his stomach, why did he listen to Mumbo? He should’ve declared himself fine, and not drifted off into this place, grimacing upon hearing a voice.

“Ah, welcome back!” His laughter was messy, Tango’s voice, once more.

Grian’s breath was flickering out of steady patterns, into ragged ones of agitation. He finally looked up, wondering why the familiar sight of his own hands was driving him up the wall. The hairs on his neck were rising, just slightly, as he locked eyes with Tango.

“Not in the mood, hmm?” Tango spat, spinning the sword in between his fingers. He lunged forward in a few quick steps, driving the blade downwards, blood beginning to drip from the newfound gash in his chest.

It hurt to move. It hurt to breathe, it was constantly hurting but the pain was being mixed in with a rush of numb, a rush of anger driving straight to his fists.  _ “Didn’t think you had it in you.” _

He found himself standing, steadily, the stinging sensation in his neck showing his respawn quite clearly. Phantom pains, his hand grasping at his neck, drawing his finger along where the scar was forming. Tango stepped towards him again, his laughter poisoning the air. “So, you don’t have it in you?”

Grian blinked off his focus, leaving his mind messy with untrained thoughts, the louder the thought the more willing he was to listen. Anger was shouting, screaming at him to focus on it, and for a moment, he did.

Tango lunged towards him, blade above his head, ready to slash. Grian grabbed Tango’s wrist, pulling Tango forward and forcing his balance to go askew. Grian forced his heel into Tango’s chest, letting go of his wrist and letting him fall against the ground. He lunged forward, wrestling the blade away from Tango as he fell. Now, holding the blade, he scrambled to his feet as he heard Tango do as well. Though, Tango was faster, and Grian’s attempts to stand were useless. Tango’s fist met Grian’s face, and he was back on the ground, knuckles white from his grip on the sword.

Grian forced his attention back on Tango, gasps caught in his throat as he watched Tango kick at him, only to be stopped by him. He held onto Tango’s foot, pushing the kick back at Tango, toppling him over. Grian rose, adrenaline seeping through his body. He wanted this over. Tango stood, groaning in pain slightly.

He’s been through this before. As he grabbed Tango’s wrist, something lit up in his mind, a shadowy version of this moment before. Grian grabbed their wrist, shifting his weight and pushing them into the ground, taking the force and letting them plummet. He let go and they were falling.

Tango was lying on the ground in front of him, coughing harshly. His smile had long since faded, his taunting abandoned. Grian had tears running down his cheeks, why did he do that? What if he hurt someone on the flip side just as he had before? Like he had? He’d never hurt anyone.

He’d never hurt anyone. He would never hurt anyone again. Again?

The tears blurred out the now-missing Tango from the void, empty laughter echoing out instead. Insanity dripped through the voice, Grian’s stomach dropped. As he blinked the tears away he found himself in a world where the grass wasn’t quite as vibrant as he knew it to be, where the roots were stained with the crimson of familiar faces where rain had drowned out memories so long ago.

He was all alone, staring at the grass. He couldn’t bring himself to look up, to look anywhere but the dancing blades, blades so sharp they tore through his skin and brought out more blood, bleeding out because of the memories.

There was so much screaming. He brought his wrists to his head, pressing harder, as if squeezing the memories out would help him. Everything was shadowy, dark but still screaming about bright colors. Blessed with flight, lost the ability to fight. This wasn’t his fault, he knew that, he knew he didn’t mean to hurt them. Hurt who?

It was their fault.

His thoughts were spiraling, not making sense to him, puzzle pieces missing from view. He did something bad this time, he could feel the way his stomach jolted at the mention of a “them,” the familiarity of a stranger.

It wasn’t his fault. He could see it, the way the cries timed with the newfound blood pouring down his hands as he brought them back into view. The way the red lined itself up with each one of his veins, guilt pulling at his stomach over and over again, but he wasn’t in control then. At least these weren’t his friends, not this time. These were strangers that they forced him to enact war on. He wasn’t supposed to remember it, but he kept having nightmares about it.

The memories were his own, his hands enforcing such crime on innocents, but he wasn’t controlling them. The memories were disguised as someone else’s as well. He wasn’t supposed to know about this little game they had devised for him.

He knew that. They had taken control and sent him away, sent him to become vengeful for them. He knew that. He also knew they tried to get rid of the memories, only for the guilt to drown him and bring him nightmares, they failed. So, they decided to declare that they were the memories of someone else. He wasn’t supposed to find it. So, he packed up and left, and when he reappeared with his friends, he had blocked the trauma out. His crimes were catching up to him.

Thunder echoed, it was raining. His gaze remained on the small blades of grass as he tried to sort through his thoughts. He was so young compared to them, and they willed him to do what they wanted. Upon closer inspection of the blades of grass, he discovered that the rain wasn’t moving them. The rain was simply bouncing off and vanishing. He gently blew on the grass, discovering it unmoving.

Looking up, there it was, swords scattered on the ground, discarded pieces of armor, multitudes of fragments of glass, and frozen people. Frozen people, frozen time. He and the rain were the only beings that seemed to move, unpaused, unlike the world. He didn’t dare get up, or breathe, or investigate, he knew how this ended. This ended with bloodshed. This ended with him fleeing from his home and leaving his memory with the time he was stuck in. This ended with them being angry at him for leaving. He caused this pain.

Some part of him that was suppressed under layers of memory knew what was going on. Buried, hidden deep away in his subconscious. He didn’t want to search for it right now. He wanted to leave and return back to planning the new base-hangout, new hangout with Mumbo. 

He didn’t want answers.

It was a red stain, his mind only focused on the pain he caused. He wanted out. It was all so blinding, especially how they had hidden away his own memories now, how they had forced him to rediscover the anguish that choked him. He was blinded by the colors, dashing purples, and burning reds. 

“Grian!” The sudden voice made him flinch, open his eyes, which he wasn’t even sure he had closed, revealing the room he had fallen asleep in, the one housing everyone. Mumbo’s arms were wrapped around him, being clutched tightly. Grian hugged back, shaking from his sobs he was slowly draining from his system. “It’s okay, it was just a nightmare.”

How he wished that was true. He could feel the tension bubbling in the air, eyes on him. How many he couldn’t exactly tell, but his guess was at least three pairs, the cyborg duo, and Xisuma, at the very least. Everyone had agreed to Mumbo’s nap time, so it truly could be any number of people, but it was definitely too many.

He pulled away, rubbing his eyes and looking at Mumbo who was struck with worry. Looking around he was partially correct, Doc, Iskall, Xisuma, but Impulse and False were not two he expected. Doc and Iskall were sitting on the other bed, appearing to have been talking to Impulse, who was standing in front of them. False and Xisuma were standing in the middle of the room, False’s arms out as if she was preparing to hug him. Xisuma was standing slightly behind her, tensed with his shoulders visibly pinned back. He looked slightly scared, a daunting task lingering in the back of his mind.

“I’m okay,” He mumbled, turning back to Mumbo and letting the confusion and fear trickle slowly out of the room. Mumbo seemed to be checking for lies in his eyes, gaze darting around Grian, sporadically. 

“What were you dreamin’ about?” False’s voice was warm, adjusting as the air settled. She adjusted, standing up straight. She rested, taking a small step over to him, looking at him with concern.

He paused, drawing at the memories that were quickly leaving him. Some part of him knew that digging deeper into the dreams was a bad idea, but he could see the horror, and now that he was awake he was sure of two things. He had caused that horror, and it was causing guilt to twist in his stomach. But, he knew that something was fabricated to make sure he stayed with whoever he was. His guess was that it didn’t work.

“I don’t even remember,” The frozen grass intruded on his thoughts, war, he knew war, and he knew everything was paused. The thought of war caused his throat to dry up, he was currently in a war, but this war was friendly, he assured himself quietly. “Something about grass,” He chuckled.

“Well, it’s over now, you’re here. You’re with us,” Xisuma spoke, staring at Grian with a slight intensity, trying to decode if he was lying. He didn’t want to talk about it, that was for sure, and he seemed to know a little more than he was letting on, but for now, that was okay. His cries scared everyone. He had been mumbling words in between broken sobs and breaths, something about war and memories, those were the only words that had actually formed correctly, enough to be understood.

The notion of Grian having nightmares about war scared Xisuma. He surely didn’t mean the STAR and G-Team war, right? It made Xisuma’s mind wander with panic, only to be drawn back by Grian reassuring everyone he was alright.

He was alright, in that moment, at this moment, he’d be just fine, he has everyone protecting him. They wouldn’t let anyone hurt him.

And Grian knew that; they wouldn’t let anyone hurt him, but some part of his mind wondered who was actually the threat, was it really his friends? Or maybe it was actually him, the real danger, the newbie to their world, the intruder.

“Hey, Grian, do you wanna go work on the plans?” Mumbo smiled, drawings Grian’s attention back to his building passion and his friends. It was all alright. It was all going to be alright, they’d fight through this, and it’d all go back to normal.

“Of course!” He smiled, jumping up and letting his mind slip away from fear. Following Mumbo outside, the room settled, causing conversations to continue. Sure, worry was hiding in everyone’s words, but they were avoiding the lingering topic.

Mumbo turned to Grian, eyeing him for a moment before continuing on. “It’ll be okay, Grian, this whole, uhm,” The words escaped Mumbo, his attempts in comforting Grian proving slightly unsuccessful. “This whole situation, it’s gonna be alright.”

He remained silent, following Mumbo along. Yeah, it was going to be fine, most definitely fine, he hoped, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 2k


	18. It Can't Always Be Okay

It was going to be alright, he had assured himself of that before. When his mind hopped over the border into the shadows he knew used to be memories, he confirmed that, once before, it hadn’t been alright. He had left whatever hell he was stuck in, he had flown away.

He paused, turning to Mumbo and shaking his head, uncertainty clinging to every muscle he had. “I need to take a look at the board everyone’s drawing up, I’ll be back,” The way the words danced away from him caused worry to grab at Mumbo, he sounded so scared of something he wasn’t sure of.

He turned, kicking off the ground as if ready for air to grab his wings and take him, but his wing remained stuck by Xisuma’s contraption, for it to heal, of course, but it was such an inconvenience. He darted off, catching himself after the sudden ground still below him.

Mumbo stood, hands on his hips, listening to his own shaky breathing as Grian vanished back inside. He had seen the way Grian stumbled, the way his default was to fly instead of run. He had even noticed the slight way Grian winced upon landing back on the ground, the pain that was surging through his body with each step he took.

Grian chuckled upon entering, all eyes on him. It made the anxiety slip down his back, tickle his spine, his friends judging eyes trained on him. Though, just as quickly as they stared, Doc and Iskall went back to convincing Impulse that their new scheme was pure profit. It sparked Impulse to disagree, which started False and Xisuma, more hesitantly than the other three, but they still spoke and focused on one another. Grian was thankful for the focus to be away from him, staring up at the board that was half-hung on the wall. Following his gaze down to Tango’s section, everything Impulse had listed was there, different colored markers defining if it was believable or not.  _ Glowing Purple Eyes _ was colored in blue, the “maybe not true” color.

And Grian was gone just as quickly as he showed up, leaving everyone in the room mostly confused. Xisuma slowly motioned to False that he had left, his voice dropping to a whisper compared to Doc and Iskall’s shouts of victory over something. “He knows something.”

“I know, he’s not telling us something, but he obviously doesn’t want to talk about it, he will on his own time.”

“He was fighting again, he always tells me about the nightmares and who is in them,” Xisuma mumbled, rubbing his wrist. Just as Grian had started crying, Xisuma had rushed over to wake him up. Grian had grabbed Xisuma’s wrist, ready to throw him, in essence, but Xisuma scrambled away, instinctively hiding behind False.

Grian looked at Mumbo with his puppy dog eyes, quietly begging. “Please, please, please, Mumbo! You have to take me to Tango.”

“I can’t, Grian! Not without Xisuma, or False, or Doc, or someone! We don’t know what’s going on with Tango,” Mumbo paused, avoiding Grian’s eyes, he knew he’d give in.

“Then you don’t have to go with me,” Grian felt bad, as if the constant guilt he was drowning in wasn’t enough, now tricking Mumbo into helping him? He noticed Mumbo glance down at him, his instinct to continue, “I’ll just go by myself.”

“Grian, you’re gonna kill me,” Mumbo ruffled his hair, letting go of his breath he was holding and giving in. Pulling out his communicator, he silently typed a message to Tango, nodding when it dinged in response. He put a finger up, a motion for Grian to wait for him as he fired a couple of rockets into the air, disappearing into his storage system. He returned a moment later, boat in hand. Gently plopping it into the water, he assisted Grian onto the boat.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” He mumbled.

“Thank you, Mumbo,” It was genuine, which made Grian’s guilt lift slightly. He could handle himself, he just needed to see something.

“What are we doing this for, anyway?” Mumbo began rowing towards the shopping district where Tango had agreed to meet him.

“I need to test something-”

“That’s dangerous,” Mumbo chuckled, letting Grian continue.

“I need to see if Tango knows something.”

Mumbo knew he most likely wouldn’t get any more out of Grian, so he continued to row, hesitating upon two subsequent dings, sounding off at them. Turning around revealed Grian, his own communicator in hand, where he sat typing a response to presumably Xisuma and the lot.

“What are you telling them?”

“Exactly what I told you, I need to see something- and I wouldn’t let you get any of them, or I was going to go by myself.”

“We should’ve told them.”

“Maybe, or maybe they would’ve just tried to stop me,” He had the smug little look on his face that signified he felt he was making the right choice. Mumbo recognized that look anywhere, his little grin that resembled one of a cat. 

A couple more dings interrupted Mumbo’s train of thought, his own communicator, just as the first had been, probably scolding him for allowing himself to be convinced by Grian. Though, he was pretty sure that if anyone knew what was going on, it was Grian, and that the rest of them knew that little fact as well. He wouldn’t let anything happen to Grian, then again, he should’ve brought one of the better fighters, so literally anyone else back on his island.

“How are you so sure you won’t get hurt?” Mumbo finally spoke again, continuing on their journey.

“If you’re there, it won’t matter, because if what Impulse is saying is correct,” Grian’s voice didn’t sound cheerful anymore, and it was easy to see why. The way he was focusing his thoughts, those thoughts were about his friends. His friends that betrayed him? That couldn’t be right, his friends that had a misunderstanding drawn on by sleepless delusions. That sounded better. “Tango doesn’t want witnesses.”

It was grim to hear the words, the way they tumbled out of his mouth. Mumbo wanted to say more, but found his chest aching with regret, regret for so much more than he could ever imagine, part of his world fighting vengeance on him for ever coming here, to this place, and meeting these people, because he wouldn’t be feeling this regret if he hadn’t. He quickly shut those parts up, setting his mouth on autopilot as he did so. It reached for every lingering question in the back of his mind, “Are you scared, Grian?”

There was a silence, Mumbo scolding himself for actually saying that, asking if he was scared, and Grian, Grian was a little shocked. Of course, he was scared. That wasn’t a question anymore, but what he was scared of was still a mystery. Was it Tango? His friends? Himself?

He leaned against Mumbo, who had intently focused on rowing and ignoring the silence, and finally gave his answer, “I’m terrified, but it’s gonna be alright,” Why do they keep saying that? He paused, trying to decide if he should tell Mumbo it was probably just a big misunderstanding, but decided to abandon that train of thought, it would lead to disappointment otherwise. “It’s going to be fine, Mumbo, because we all have each other, y’know?” The default comforting words tried to fight for a spot, the  _ ‘It’s all for fun,’ or ‘It’s just a misunderstanding,’  _ but Grian remained determined to not give any more false hope than he had.

Mumbo nodded in response, watching as the shopping district came into view. Grian felt nauseous being here again, but didn’t dare say a word of it. Mumbo slowly stepped out of the boat, grabbing Grian’s arm and pulling him out as well. He took a couple of steps to the rocket shop before noticing how pale Grian had turned.

“Are you okay, Grian?” He furrowed his brow in concern, noticing how tight of a grip Grian had on him.

“I’m okay, let’s go,” It was a shaky process even just walking over to the shop, Grian’s nails practically embedded in Mumbo’s arm, which was fine. After arriving, Mumbo latched his arms under Grian’s, and plopped him against the rocket shop's exterior wall.

“Hey, Mumbo!” Tango landed, eyes immediately bouncing to Grian, whose eyes were closed at the moment, and then back up to Mumbo, “Thanks for finding Impulse for me! He really needs to stop falling asleep in the STAR base,” Tango laughed.

Mumbo felt threatened, in a sense, not even by Tango, or his words, but by the air around them which was adopting sharp knives and prodding at every part of him. “It was no problem, really!” The world found him boring and eased up, his smile reflecting genuine happiness, though his mind was running in panic. He had noticed the way Tango looked at Grian, just glanced at him for a moment, but a moment too long.

“So, is there something specific you wanted to talk about?”

Mumbo looked towards Grian, fidgeting with his suit jacket hem. This was not going well, though Grian looked like he had settled a little bit, color seeping into his face. Mumbo reached down and helped the smaller man back up, turning to Tango with a smile.

Tango couldn’t look at Grian in the eyes. It was noticeable that after the first time their eyes had met, with both party’s eyes open of course, Tango couldn’t do it again. He instead looked at his feet, or Mumbo’s fidgeting hands, but never at Grian.

“I just wanted to say hello to a whole bunch of hermits, seeing as I’ve been cooped up inside all day!” Grian’s smile radiated warmth, but his words were hinting with uneasiness, and he still was leaning against Mumbo for some support.

“I’m sorry about your wing,” Tango seemingly forced himself to pay attention to Grian, making eye contact now. His voice was light, not pitiful at all, and sounded genuine. His attitude had switched from being confident, to a nervous wreck, now back to being, simply Tango, for lack of a better phrase.

“Oh, it’ll get better in no time!” Grian nodded as an acceptance of the apology. “Thank you, though.”

“I hope you feel better, but I have projects to get working on,” He started, Mumbo eyeing him closely, “I do feel we need to chat sometime soon!” He stepped closer to Grian, Grian dislodging himself from Mumbo, much to Mumbo’s silent complaint. He held his arms out, Grian gladly accepted the embrace.

He disappeared rather quickly, Mumbo at Grian’s side once more. He took Grian’s hand and led him back to the boat, his stomach shifting. Tango never really hugged anyone.

“I think I know what Impulse meant,” Grian looked around carefully, paranoia flicking in his gaze. He stumbled over his own feet, though he was easily caught by Mumbo, who put one of Grian’s arms around his neck. “Can we get back? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Mumbo escorted him back to their boat, setting him down gently in, before clambering in himself. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” His mind was scrambled with dizziness, faint hints of memory from  _ that  _ night dancing around him. He remembered flying to Mumbo’s base instinctively, fighting to not just pass out over the water, he could recall Mumbo carrying him away from phantoms, and he could barely see an event that was out of place. An event that fell more in-line with the memory that taunted him when X and him were in front of I-Trade, it was him running. He was running through the nether, fast as he could because trust wasn’t on his side and trust wasn’t anywhere to be found. 

He could feel himself falling tired as the waves lulled over his distracted mind, but he wouldn’t fall asleep. He refused, so much so he was silently drawing pictures in the air with his finger to keep him from sleep.

Tango felt guilty looking at his friend in the eyes. Each time Grian appeared in his mind his thoughts tore at it viciously, and he was losing the fight in his own mind. The fight where he convinced himself that he had nothing to feel guilty for, but his body knew something his mind didn’t. Something was going on, where he disappeared for days at a time and would regain control just to find that everything around him was different. Impulse was avoiding him. Grian, Grian got hurt somehow, the war was paused, and everything was wrong.

He did not call Grian a coward. He made that clear to himself instantly, he did not. For some reason, he felt the word snap at his tongue when coming face to face with Grian. He couldn’t shake this long feeling of guilt each time he seemingly woke up.

“I do feel we need to chat sometime soon!” He needed to tell Grian something. He could feel the world slipping away from him, he needed to get out of here. Suddenly, Grian was in his arms, and they were hugging, which wasn’t his intention. He wasn’t even sure who initiated the hug, but that didn’t matter now. It was fading rather quickly, the world was draining of color, “I’m sorry, Grian,” He wanted to continue.

He was in the sky. The shopping district was no longer underneath him, instead, it was the ocean. Where was he?

He practically jumped out of the boat, Mumbo noticed, he scrambled to get back to the comfort of safety, which was unlike Grian. Sure, he wasn’t always reckless, but he didn’t always dive into the smart choices, either.

He looked up at Xisuma, who had been waiting anxiously for him, again. He didn’t exactly mean to make everyone a nervous wreck each time he disappeared, but it was a gift trailing him with his wing restraints.

“I’m sorry, I just had to check something and Mumbo was closest!”

“Grian, you’re going to give me a heart attack, you know that?”

He nodded, considering his next words carefully. “I’m sorry, X, I really am, but I found what I was looking for,” He glanced around, quietly dragging Mumbo and Xisuma into the cramped ‘house.’

He didn’t want to tell them the entirety of his theory. He didn’t want his past, one he wasn’t even fully aware of, to even be hinted at. He did have a theory, and it would make sense with their information. He did have a theory, and it would mean his friends were still his friends.

“Tango, he hugged me, he couldn’t look me in the eyes, that’s the basis of what happened at that little rendezvous,” And he stopped. He couldn’t decide how to explain without raising questions. He cleared his throat. His eyes met Mumbo’s, the world spinning around him. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words, so he forced his gaze back at his feet and swallowed.

“I think Tango might be possessed, in a way,” He felt sick, talking through his theory, constantly reminding himself not to reveal too much, “and I think my nightmares might have a link to who’s possessed, and I think they’re real,” He didn’t care if he was making sense now, he was talking faster and faster, “Like in a weird way, Wels and Tango have talked in my nightmares and no one else has, and those two are on our list of... oddities,”

Though, no one else seemed to understand, Grian was getting worked up. The words weren’t exactly making sense to anyone, but Xisuma and Grian, and possibly Mumbo. The truth was hiding in those words, but he was too busy scrambling between his thoughts and doubts and hiding his past to realize that.

“Hey,” Xisuma had rested his hand on his shoulder, rubbing it with his thumb. “Look at me, okay?” He now held Grian’s attention, smiling at him, “That makes sense, calm down, okay?”

Grian nodded, settling his breathing which he had put on hold, his mind didn’t have the capacity to remind him to breathe normally whilst he was focused on explaining while  _ not _ explaining. Xisuma had whisked away the confusion in the room, the rest of the members trying to sort through what Grian had said.

“Alrighty, new game plan,” Xisuma said, interrupting thoughts of confusion, “Mumbo and Grian, work on the base, Impulse, you’re gonna stay here with me and sort through this info,” He nodded at the board, then continued, “False, Doc, and Iskall, I want you guys to go talk to ConCorp, I’m thinking their drones may prove useful.”

Everyone nodded, focusing on Xisuma. He looked determined, from what was visible behind a visor, at least. Though, if they could hear his heartbeat, or his thoughts, or even notice the way his hands were twitching just slightly, it would reveal someone terrified. He was ultimately terrified of everything, his plan one to wait out the long game. If it was just one incident, he’d simply march over to Wels and demand an explanation, but with so many puzzle pieces, each having jagged edges meaning they only half aligned with other pieces, he couldn’t.

“Come on, Grian!”

Xisuma watched as Grian half-skipped, much calmer now, following behind a highly concerned Mumbo, who was still dawning a smile. He looked much like a parent, watching after a child. With that he remembered something that had been true since the start, it would all be okay. In one way or another with some undefined amount of time, it’d be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 2.9k
> 
> so let me say something about the comments  
*holy shit*  
that's all I'm gonna say about that
> 
> also this chapter... is odd. I don't think I wrote it well, at all, and I had a lot of it written pretty soon after posting 17, but didn't like it, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't fix it. So I'm sorry this chapter is not really the best, but I wanted to get it out tonight (even tho I work in 11 hours now and I have to sleep, it's *fine*)


	19. Birds of a Feather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: panic attack

No one had really understood Grian’s ramble about possession. He had been too frantic, too many words that spewed from him, but Xisuma could tell how upset he was. He’d have to talk with Grian again, hopefully get him to confess whatever he was hiding. He was hiding something.

He obviously had been fighting someone. That much was clear to Xisuma. Grian had been all prepared to throw Xisuma himself upon trying to wake him, but Grian was always truthful to Xisuma. Had Grian been fighting Xisuma? Is that why Grian refused to tell him?

“Xisuma, you alright?” Impulse shook him from his thoughts. “You’ve been staring at that same paper for-like, 10 minutes now,” When Xisuma simply stared at him, still trying to find the words to respond, Impulse continued, “You can go talk to Grian, I know you’re worried.”

He blinked, finally breaking his stare, slowly rising. “I’m gonna go, uh, do that.”

Impulse watched him out, the way he wandered like he just woke up. He quietly chuckled to himself, his next ‘Xisuma-Related Goal’ being to make him nap, seeing as it was obvious he barely slept. Glancing down to the mess of papers in front of them, he rubbed his eyes, stress immediately dancing with him at the sight of the mess. He continued writing his list of information, the partial-list Grian had provided, dreams and possession being added to their list of theories. Rubbing his head, he wondered how ridiculous this all sounded, even to the hermits outside of their group, they’d disown each theory as undeniably insane. He probably would have, too. It sounded like everyone had lost whatever brain cells they had, becoming rambling zombies with no train of thought. That wasn’t true, Impulse wished it was. He wouldn’t be questioning if his best friend was really his best friend if it was.

It didn’t help Grian had made no sense. He had been focusing too hard on something rather than thinking through his thoughts, all of his words had been mashed together. Hopefully, just maybe, Xisuma would fix that.

* * *

“Hey, Grian,” Xisuma, after adjusting to the light for a moment, found his way over to where Grian was standing on a concrete tower that made it appear he was on the surface of the water. Mumbo was circling above him, ceasing his shouting upon noticing Xisuma. Mumbo dived down, towards Grian, picking him up for a moment, before taking off again, gliding over to Xisuma. He half-dropped Grian to sturdy himself, but Grian didn’t mind, they weren’t that far off of the ground.

“Heya, Xisuma!” Mumbo smiled, brushing off his jacket. When Xisuma returned the interaction with a half-hearted glance of confusion, one mixed with concern, Mumbo simply nodded. He figured Xisuma had wanted to talk with Grian, so he waved a goodbye, an almost frantic, “I’m going to go get those supplies, Grian!” Then he vanished.

“Hello, X.”

Xisuma sighed, readjusting his helmet before looking at Grian, worried, “Come sit with me, for a moment.”

Grian reluctantly followed, gently plopping down next to Xisuma, tucked in between buildings. He looked up at Xisuma, chuckling nervously. Xisuma returned the gaze, sighing one last time before beginning.

“Grian, what were you dreaming about?”

He swallowed roughly, even letting go of a small gasp, “I told you, I don’t remember, Xisuma, I wish I did,” He felt a pang of guilt pluck at him, but he ignored it, “Something about grass, something about,” What had he said before? Had he mentioned war, had he mentioned time? He wasn’t even sure of what lies he had almost convinced himself of, “war, and time, I remember time being an issue-- or something.”

“Grian, who was it this time?” Xisuma was gentle, shifting closer to Grian. He wanted to remind Grian they weren’t enemies, they were friends, but the reminder would come off threatening, he was sure.

Grian wanted to keep fighting. He shook his head, before letting go of a breath he hadn’t been sure he was holding, “It was Tango, but that’s not the bad thing, X.”

Xisuma remained silent, studying Grian closely.

“I don’t even know what the bad thing is, but it’s not Tango’s fault, it was something I did. Something  _ I _ did. I felt so scared, and without wings, flight isn’t a good instinct,” He chuckled, but his face felt hot, crawling with shame, “I fought him, I struggled to realize it was a dream, but I knew if I fought him someone here would get hurt,” The words were coming quicker now, water-falling over the edge, “But I fought him anyway. I told myself I’d never hurt anyone, anyone again, ever again, not like that. When did I ever hurt someone like that?” His voice had dropped to a whisper, small tears racing down each cheek. “One of the things I did to Tango- I had done it before, it was deja vu, but I meant to hurt them, they fell, or something, I remember them falling once I let go, they fell off a cliff face, they fell,” His breaths became ragged, and Xisuma tried to get him to stop talking, to comfort him, but Grian was faster. Grian rose, stepping backward, just out of Xisuma’s reach, once he stood. “I hurt someone, I hurt lots of people, really, really, bad.”

Xisuma looked at Grian, who looked terrified in his own eyes, who looked like he had been trapped in someone else’s body. He was panicking, his breathing unsteady and his movements quick and jagged. Xisuma took another step toward Grian, preparing to pull the smaller one into a tight hug, only for Grian to step back.

“Xisuma, I did something bad. I think they gave me wings so I could run away, because I was a danger to others if I had to fight. I hurt so many people,” His knees were wobbling, ready to collapse in on himself at any moment.

This time, Xisuma was faster. He wrapped Grian into a hug, shushing him quietly, forcing them both to sit down after feeling how shaky Grian was on his own. Grian tried to talk, tried to continue, but Xisuma cut him off with a series of shushes, and the way he was pulling Grian into his chest. “Calm down, Grian, it’s okay, it’s okay,” He felt Grian shake with sobs, but Grian remained almost silent.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

* * *

Mumbo knew he was at the shopping district, he knew what he was looking for, but he couldn’t help himself from poking around. The world felt off, it felt wrong, the shopping district was too quiet. He dipped in and out of each shop, checking to see the stock of each. Almost every shop had remained the same, if not dropping in profits just slightly. A couple of the shops looked like they hadn’t been collected from, specifically a few ConCorp shops, aside some others. Though, with the ConCorp’s massive collection of shops, that made sense, it must be hard to track all of them.

As he was searching around, he ran into Wels. His heart hammered in his chest, his breath getting caught in his throat as he looked one of their mysteries up and down. “Wels?”

“Oh! Mumbo!” He looked startled at running into another person, especially one who looked almost exhausted as he, himself, felt. Wels felt like he was dissolving away, dripping into nothingness from pure exhaustion.

“Wels, are you okay? You look dead, man!” Mumbo grabbed onto Wels’ shoulder, looking him up and down. He wasn’t wearing his helmet. After looking at him for a moment, he wasn’t wearing any of his armor. It was a loose-fitting, gray t-shirt, and dark gray jeans. Mumbo had never seen him without any form of armor, even if he had only worn his helmet once while super sick.

“I’m fine,” He did not sound fine, his words dragged farther on the ground than his eye bags.

“Come on, we’re going back to your bed, to rest.”

“You don’t have to do that,” It didn’t matter, Mumbo had one arm wrapped with Wels’, helping him wobble his way back to his base.

* * *

“Scar and Cub said they’d be here soon, though Cub did tell me that Scar is a little tired,” False leaned against the underground bunker, the one located on the warzone for when battle broke loose.

“I hope they hurry, for our sake,” Iskall said, gesturing to False’s tapping foot. “I’d rather she not bite my head off.”

Doc tried to conceal his laughter, failing to do so, False glaring daggers into his skull.

“Sorry about that!” Cub entered, the vex laughter echoing as he did so. Scar stepped in closely behind him, yawning silently. “We’re here now, what did you wanna talk about?”

“Something bui-” Scar yawned again, shaking his head and continuing, “Something business-y, perhaps?”

“Xisuma said you guys were willing to help, with the drones, and such.”

Doc and Iskall whispered to each other, chuckling quietly. They straightened as False narrowed her eyes at them.

“Of course. How’s Grian doing?” Cub was quieter than normal, nodding to himself about where drone placement was definitely needed. Probably all over- that wasn’t an issue.

“He’s okay, he’s pretty upset he can’t fly, at the moment.”

“You know what? I think there is something I can do to help with that,” Cub smiled, crossing his arms and chuckling to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're back.  
Words:1.5k  
:)


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